Whispers of Fire
by Zetharin
Summary: A former skip, who has the ability to control fire, has been stalking and harassing Stephanie. He assaults her in her apartment and with Ranger still known to be in the wind, she runs to the Merry Men to feel safe. Unfortunately, finding out who protects Stephanie only makes the stalker escalate from cruelly playful to deadly intent.
1. Chapter 1

_This story is NOT in any way related to Unbreakable Bonds or Life in Chains. It is slightly AU from the standard Plumverse in that Ranger and a few of the Merry Men and the skip are not purely human. There are some supernatural elements of the world (other than just unmentionables) that are also present. They don't ever CLASH really horribly with the world as Evanovich built it but maybe just add an extra element. I am working on world/species building for something else and this popped into my head and I had to write it to be able to focus on that._

_For parts of this story Stephanie is sugar deprived and horny (and maybe a little OOC personality wise) and Ranger is...elsewhere. Zeveray wrote the smut, which she has kept pretty vanilla, so I'm going to post it here for everyone._

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Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment.

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Hector's computer chirped at him. It was the alert he had set on elevator access. Someone had blocked the elevator camera and attempted to access the 7th floor with a key fob. His hands flew over the keys, diverting the elevator to 5, sending a text alert to all of the core team, and restarting the camera to see who it was. The sight on the elevator made his blood flame to deadly anger. A wisp of smoke curled out of one nostril, which he inhaled again quickly. This office had smoke alarms. He tightened down his grip on his emotions and the flame within. Information first. What did he know?

Someone had hurt Stephanie. Her beautiful curly hair was partially singed off on one side. There were angry red burn marks on her arms and some swelling on her face that looked like the beginning of a bruise. Her shirt had a horizontal slash across her belly that was stained in blood. Her black cargo pants were unbuttoned and ripped or slashed too. They clung damply to her legs. He hoped that wasn't blood too. She was barefoot and there was a perfect bloody footprint on the elevator floor.

He noticed the icon that showed that more than one person had pulled up that camera's feed. The control room had it of course and everyone not on monitor duty was clustered around the elevator as the doors opened on five. Their guest staying in Ranger's apartment was watching too. Good. It looked like Stephanie would need her skills.

Frost studied the woman on the elevator with her usual detached calm. This was certainly something interesting. She recognized Stephanie from the briefing picture and would finally get to meet the human woman Ranger was in love with. She had been curious about the other woman that she had been brought here specifically to tend but told not to make contact with unless necessary. Now it was necessary. She wrinkled her nose. A hairdresser would be necessary too. She placed a call to have Ella make those arrangements and then with soundless unhurried strides, went down the stairs to 5 to collect her patient.

In a remote cabin without running water or electricity, another being watched. His laptop had to be charged with solar power and the cell signal he tapped into for internet access was erratic and weak, at best. So was his ability to stay conscious. He had been brought in on a med helicopter with Bobby and lowered on a backboard because there wasn't really anywhere to land. The only way he was getting out of this off grid sanctuary to help the woman in the elevator would be under his own power. He glanced ruefully at his stained bandages and admitted to himself that he wasn't in any shape right now to help her. He couldn't even get out of bed to piss without assistance. He would have to just watch while he could, give orders if necessary, and trust the others to give her as much as he would if he were there. "Babe," he whispered as the pain pulled him back into unconsciousness.

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**The second chapter should be up within a few hours. It just needs a quick double check for stupid mistakes. This was more teaser than chapter, with my notes taking up a large chunk of the short wordcount. Won't happen again. Promise. But you're curious, right?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Warning for Smut. We all like a little lemony goodness, right? Sigh. Credit for the Vanilla lemons goes to Zeveray who has more practice behaving with that sort of thing than I do. **

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_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

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**Six months before Chapter 1 _(Stephanie POV)_**

"You are crazy!" I said, coming out of the shower and putting on my nightshirt. "I'm not sleeping with you again!" I heard him laugh in the other room while I brushed my teeth.

'Why not?' he replied. 'Don't you trust me to keep my hands on my own body?'

I spit out the toothpaste. 'Hell no, I don't trust you. You would come on to me after just two minutes!'

There was silence for a few seconds. I dried my face with the towel and walked out into the bedroom. Walking around the bed, I noticed that Ranger obviously was not going to move. He was laying stretched out on his back on top of the sheets, fully dressed, on the right side of the bed. So I sat down on the left side and slid underneath the covers.

"You are engaged, according the the rumors," he said, turning his head so that he could look at me. I pulled the covers all the way up to my chin.

"Yes, and you like to poach." I looked at him for a second, then turned around onto the side and turned off the light on the nightstand next to me. When Ranger was set on something, he didn't change his mind. And despite this thing with Joe that was spiraling out of control again, I wanted Ranger here with me. I knew by the things that slipped past his blank face that he was leaving in the morning to go in the wind. Somewhere dangerous. I wanted to be as close to him as I could for whatever time he could give me. He might not come back.

To my surprise, he got up, and I was wondering why he gave in so easily when I heard him taking off his clothes behind me. I couldn't keep myself from looking at his bare chest and thighs. He was so gorgeous. He got underneath the covers right next to me. I shrugged my shoulders seemingly indifferent and turned around again to go to sleep. Since the Vordo, I had made sure that there was always enough distance between Ranger and me. After all, this was supposed to be a work-relationship and I had Joe, and somehow I could think of 100 reasons to stay as far away as I could. Yes, he was attractive. In fact, he was outright gorgeous. And what made it even harder was that he was caring, too.

I heard Ranger move around behind me but even when his movements stopped and he obviously had gotten comfortable enough to go to sleep, I could not relax. Yes, I was supposed to be with Joe. Yes, everybody thought I was with a great man and would be happy, and I did everything to keep up that impression, but my job created tension and arguments that gradually increased in intensity, and I was wondering what else would show up that I was not happy with. Actually, there was plenty already. He did not satisfy me in bed, for one thing. I think that first night with Ranger had ruined me because Joe never seemed any good after that.

These were dangerous thoughts. Ranger's leg changed positions and rubbed against my thigh. "If he was good in bed and did it right then you would be late for work sometimes, or tired, or totally relaxed, but you are always on time, you always get enough sleep, and you are always tense. He just doesn't do it for you!" His thigh slowly moved up past the inside of my knee while he moved one hand to my shoulder, starting to slowly massage my tense muscles. Involuntarily, I sighed.

"I am sure he isn't even home enough to know what you need." His fingers found a particularly tense spot.

"Ouch!" I protested, and he reacted by decreasing the pressure and pushing me up and over until I was laying on my side again with my back facing him. He was close behind me, so close that I could feel the warmth of his body on my back, and it made me sigh quietly. His leg was still resting between my thighs. I did not want this to happen. Or did I? I was aware of what was happening. He was right - I had not gotten a massage in ages, I enjoyed his touch... and... I had not been turned on like this in months.

I tried to turn around but Ranger didn't allow me to move. "Stay where you are and enjoy what I am doing. Ok? We can argue about it later." And then he went back to massaging along my neck, my right shoulder, and also down my spine, and when his fingers moved back up, they pushed my nightshirt up along with them until the cotton was bulged up underneath my arms. 'Take this off!' he said, and I wondered if it was his kind of hoarse voice that just let me lift my arms for him to take off my shirt or if it was his fingers that had relaxed me so much. I did not seem to matter that I was not wearing anything now. The covers were still there.

There was his hand again on my shoulder, working its magic, but instead of focusing on my neck and upper back, his fingers trailed off down my spine again, working on my lower back and ass. I lost track of time. I had closed my eyes and focused on this hand and massaging fingers that awakened my back and made me feel warm and good - and excited at the same time. I moaned softly.

"You like it?" he asked, and his voice was just a whisper.

"Hmmm..." I replied, not wanting to do anything to make him stop.

For a second his hand was gone to push the covers down to our feet. At first, I wanted to protest but then the cool air made my skin tingle while his hand returned to my back, and I closed my eyes again, letting him have what he wanted. I could feel the change in his movements. He leaned back to get a better view of my naked body stretched out before him, and he obviously enjoyed it because I could feel the tip of his cock against my right ass cheek. I knew he was about to pull away to not have me notice his hard-on, but it was too late, and when he saw that I did not move, he put his hand on my shoulder and ran it down my arm very slowly until his fingers touched mine and his body was pressed against my back. He remained like this a little while his cock grew even harder and moved firmly against my ass. Then he buried his face in my neck, and, moving my hair out of the way, kissed me very softly on shoulder and neck.

I did not know what to do. I was on fire. I could not think. Had I really thought I could withstand this man no matter what might happen? Had I really honestly believed that he was unable to be gentle and unable to excite me? This was so incredibly erotic and sensuous! I was lost, so lost, in fact, that I lost control of my actions although that had never happened before. Was this my body that moved closer against his, me who moaned when his hand traveled up my arm and around my shoulder, down my side and over my hips to my thighs? Was it me getting wet when his thigh began to move closer towards my pussy while his hand moved up my belly and enveloped my breast oh so gently? And then, when his thigh touched my pussy and moved against it again and again and he could feel how wet I was, he moaned, that moan coming from deep within, and it excited me tremendously. I moved my head back against him and his fingers drew a line around my chin and lips before they slid down my body, played with my pubic hair and then found my clit.

I moaned, drowning in the sensation of his moving fingers and his thigh pressed against my pussy from underneath. My head tilted back, his mouth kissing my shoulder and neck, he only decreased the pressure of his thigh to allow his fingers to collect enough pussy juice from my slit to rub around my clit every so often. My breathing became ragged when he increased the pressure on my clit and his fingers moved faster against me. "Cum for me babe!" he whispered into my ear. That was too much. I clasped my thighs around his hand, I moved my arm until my hand got a hold of his hip, and then I came and came and came, shudders running through my body, and I moaned uncontrollably.

Then I felt his cock, rock-hard still, and I moved my arm until I could close my hand around it. "Yeah, touch me, babe!" he moaned, and I moved my hand up and down the long big shaft. "Oh god," he said, moving his hips against me. He held my thigh up while I reached for his cock from around my thigh to pull him closer to my dripping slit. I was so hot and the thickness of his rock hard cock made me moan in pleasure before the head even reached the entrance of my cunt. "Tell me that you want this, babe," he demanded while the head of his cock got soaked with pussy juice and he slowly penetrated me.

I gasped. "Yes!" I said , beside myself from wanting him inside me so badly. "Yes, I want it! I want you!" I moaned, and then he pushed further into me, burying his cock deep inside me.

He grabbed my hip and began to fuck me with long hard strokes that made both of us moan. His hand found my tits and played with my nipples while he fucked me harder now, pumping into me with long strokes that pushed me to the top and over the edge. "Yeah, babe, cum for me! Have another one on me!" I came furiously, trying to control myself, but it was in vain. My body was shaking uncontrollably and I buried my face in the pillow next to me, screaming . He continued to fuck me but he had slowed down, giving me time to recover. After my breathing had calmed down a little, he pulled out of me and turned me around until I was facing him. My legs were spread wide when his cock slid into my dripping pussy again, and I opened my eyes to look at his face above me when he started to move inside of me. He kissed me passionately, his tongue diving deep into my mouth. My fingers entangled in his hair, I pulled his head even closer, kissing him back with all the intensity I was capable of. When he lifted his head, we stared at each other, eyes holding and saying everything I knew we wouldn't say out loud before he left. He thrust into me, again and again, until I could feel his body tense dramatically, and he opened his mouth, shouting my name, his eyes finally shut to drown in that overtaking orgasm. His body trembled, shivers ran down his spine ,and he moaned loudly.

When he finally collapsed on top of me it was impossible to distinguish his heartbeat from mine. Whose arms or legs or whatever - it was unimportant. We just lay there, our hair damp, his back shiny from sweat, and I took in our scent before I wrapped my arms around him and closed my eyes. I listened as our breathing became normal again, and then I fell asleep.

I didn't know what was happening. I had gone to sleep warm and comfortable and wrapped in Ranger's arms. But now it was cold and I started to shiver. "Ranger?" I said softly, turning around blindly, reaching for him without finding his warm body. I opened my eyes and in the cold grey light of dawn, could see that he wasn't in the room but his duffle bag was still in the corner. "Where are you?" I asked more loudly, now almost completely awake. He wouldn't have left without saying goodbye, would he?

"I'm right here." And I heard him shuffle around in the kitchen.

"Well come back here!" I demanded. He was wearing his cargo pants, hair wet from showering. He set a cup of coffee and a plate with a blueberry muffin on the nightstand and then wrapped me in my blanket.

"I have to go, Babe," he told me as he finished getting dressed and pulling on his boots.

"I know," I replied, picking at my muffin and vowing not to cry until he was gone. He had to do what he had to do. There was no need for me to make things harder on him. I realized in a rush of clarity that it was hard for him to leave me. That's why, for years, I had been his last stop before going in the wind.

"Tank's in charge over at Rangeman. I'm bringing Bobby with me but there's an in house doctor there if you need one. Frost is very talented and will take care of you for anything you need. Don't skip medical care just because you want to avoid the hospital, okay? Promise to take care of yourself, Babe."

"I promise," I assured him, taking a too large gulp of the hot coffee. "Don't get shot, Batman."

"Don't go crazy, Babe." Then he kissed me deeply, grabbed his bag and was gone. Like smoke.

I spent the next few days in bed crying and once Joe figured out why I was so upset, we had our biggest fight ever. It was clear that he was really hurt by my reaction to Ranger leaving. And it was clear to me, from my reaction, that Joe and I would never be anything more than friends. We derailed my mother's wedding plan by breaking up for good this time. Last I heard, he was dating a nice teacher but we didn't talk if we could avoid it. I really had hurt him a lot. He didn't deserve that. It was easy to avoid him. I forced myself to chase skips but my world was empty. I wanted Ranger back. When not hauling in my easy regulars, I hid in bed.

Lester was the one who finally snapped me out of it. He convinced me to eat. Bullied me into going into Rangeman to work a few times a week. I had promised Ranger that I would take care of myself and with Lester's help, I got better at doing that. I had been worried that seeing the guys would remind me of Ranger and make things worse. I was wrong. There was comfort in being surrounded by his men. They genuinely cared about me and rallied around me. One of them was always there when my thoughts turned dark. They took me to the gun range or to play paintball. One sleepless night, Zip taught me a few dirty tricks to hurt someone who grabbed me and the next Rangeman to sneak up on me in the break room to tickle me ended up on the floor. After that, they all had to compare their military training and various branches of martial arts by teaching me as many dirty tricks as they could think of. I sometimes hung out in one of their apartments on four, wishing more than once that I could stay there and not go back to my lonely apartment but there weren't any open apartments and I wasn't going up to seven or invading Bobby's empty apartment by the infirmary. Though, I wondered briefly if Bobby's apartment was empty, where the new doctor was staying. Maybe Frost lived off site? I hadn't had need for the mysterious Frost's medical skills.

Life settled into a regular pattern. Searches at Rangeman Monday and Thursday. Skips for Vinnie Tuesday, Wednesday, and sometimes Friday. Occasionally a distraction or surveillance on a Rangeman skip over the weekends. Most evenings and weekends spent with at least one of the Merry Men. Some of them, like Hector, were like protective older brothers. Others were solidly friends. A few though, like Lester, were not shy about making sure I knew that benefits were on the table as possibilities. They knew that when (I refused to consider if as a possibility) Ranger got back, I was his. But Ranger wasn't there and they were. They cared about me too in their own ways so it was very tempting. Ranger was gone and there was no commitment between us. Ranger had been clear on more than one occasion that he didn't want commitment but I regretted deeply that he had left thinking he would come back to find me married to Joe.

Five months after Ranger left, I started to suspect that I had picked up a stalker. My spidey sense had been going crazy without anything to identify specifically as the problem. I spent more time at Rangeman. Got one of them to take me home and clear the apartment every night. I thought I was being smart and safe. I didn't tell them about the potential stalker. The burnt piece of toast could have just been a fluke. The charred lump of my mom's leftover meatloaf in my microwave when I got out of the shower could have just been my own fault. Maybe I set the microwave too long. The dead racoon with singed fur on my car hood could have been a strange coincidence, as could any of the other dead and burnt birds and animals I kept tripping over in parking lots and the yards of skips. There were no notes, no outright threats, just lots of burnt things that kept finding their way into my path. And any flame that I happened to be near outside of the presence of a Rangeman seemed to whisper threats. I chalked that part up to my imagination running away with me. I wasn't really sure I had a stalker. There wasn't anything to tell anyone that wouldn't make me sound like I was nuts. And so it continued, wearing me down, making me jumpy.

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Still with me? **Maybe some review love? ** Guest/Anonymous is okay with me. Third chapter is around half way done. Probably will be posted tomorrow or Friday and will be Stephanie's POV, of the events in the first teaser chapter and continuing from that point (plus her sharing with the Merry Men what happened).


	3. Chapter 3

_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

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_**(Stephanie POV, same day as first chapter)**_

I was tired and wet from my encounter with Kenneth. I needed to tell the guys about him and his burnt little presents and his arson habit. What if he decided to burn the Rangeman building next? But first I wanted a shower and clean clothes from Ranger's closet. I grimaced in pain as I got out of the car. Maybe a visit to the mysterious Dr. Frost wouldn't be a bad idea either.

I hit the buttons on my key fob to scramble the cameras and send me to seven. No need to worry them with my appearance. They'd be upset if they saw me before I showered. My shoulders slumped in defeat when I noticed the key fob had been overridden by someone. The elevator stopped on five and the doors opened. I was immediately surrounded by heavily armed men wearing black. All of them wanted to see me with their own eyes to assess the damage done to me and hear who had harmed me so they could teach him the error of his ways. Unlike a crowd of women would have been, they were silent. No one shouted questions.

Zip was the first to reach out to hug me but after that, the dam broke and they all seemed to need to do it. None of them even flinched at the blood or wet or the smell of burnt stuff that clung to me. I tried not to make pain noises when they brushed against the cut in my belly or the burns on my arms. Finally Tank shouldered his way into the circle and took me in his arms. At his side was a short slender woman. She was a complete contrast to him and my eyes were drawn to her instantly. It was strange enough to see a woman other than me or Ella at Rangeman that she got my full attention for a long moment as I studied her. Besides the dramatic height difference, her skin was very pale, her eyes the lightest blue that I had only ever seen in Siberian Husky Dogs, and her blond hair was nearly white.

Tank roared at the gathered Merry Men, ordering them back to their work so I could be examined by the doctor. Then he scooped me into his arms and laid me down on the couch in his office. The woman had followed us there. Her eyes examined me closely from head to toe but she didn't approach me. Then she met Tank's eyes for a long moment before looking into mine. I felt drawn into the blue and for just a moment, I thought the blue had a bit of silver. It felt like she was looking into me. Then she spoke in a voice barely over a whisper. "You're stable enough to tell us what happened before I take you to the medical suite to be stitched up," she told me.

I tore my eyes away from her to look at Tank. "This is Frost," he introduced her. "She's the doctor Ranger called in a favor from to replace Bobby while they're away."

"Are you staying on site?" I asked her curiously.

"Yes," she replied. "Ranger was kind enough to lend me his apartment, though half of the things up there appear to be yours." I felt a flash of jealousy. Another woman had been staying in Ranger's apartment. Before I could get too worked up, she was continuing, "He knew Bobby's apartment is in too much of an active area for me to sleep and he desperately wanted me here on site in case you got hurt. You're apparently a lot more important than these guys." She elbowed Tank playfully and he made an 'oof' sound like all of that hulking muscle had actually felt her delicate little elbow.

Tank grabbed a pad of paper and sat on the floor near me to take notes. Frost sat in the armchair across the room, her eyes on me as she continued to assess my condition through the questioning that was to come. "Can you start at the beginning, Bombshell?" Tank asked, pen poised.

I told him about the burnt food and the dead animals quickly. He made notes about them and I could tell he was displeased. Before he could reprimand me for not telling me sooner, I protested that I hadn't known it was a stalker. There were no notes or any threats. It had just seemed like a teenage prank. I didn't tell him about my spidey sense of wrongness or the whispering flames. He would think I was nuts. I just gave him the facts as they had happened, including today.

My former skip, Kenneth Drake, been in my apartment when I got home. He had cut me up in his attempt to get me subdued and restrained. He terrified me when he had cut my pants and even sliced the button off of them. He had disabled the apartment building's fire alarms somehow. I read that note as Tank jotted it down. Someone would be sent to fix that.

Then Kenneth had burned most of my clothes, some of my hair, and occasionally got those burning things close enough to burn my skin, somehow without burning himself even once in the process. The whole time, he babbled about seeing me with Lester and Hector and those two being just like him. He knew now. Knew I wasn't just a tool of the human legal system but I knew the truth and still had taken him to them when he was FTA, destroying his life. I didn't know what he had been talking about but crazy stalkers rarely make much sense.

I expected Tank to dismiss those rantings but he snapped to attention and noted those on his pad too, expression serious. "How did you get free?" he asked me.

"That's the weird thing," I admitted. "Just as Kenneth left, the ropes around me burst into fire. Must have been a stray spark or something. I jumped in the shower to put them out as soon as they snapped off. I felt the heat my clothes under the ropes somehow weren't burnt at all. But I got a quick shower to make sure I wouldn't spontaneously combust in the car." He made a 'go on' sort of noise, still writing notes. I continued, "And that's it really. I came here. I needed clothes and I have some here. There's some at my mom's house too but what if he comes back after me?"

"You did the right thing," Tank assured me. "We won't let him get you. I just wish you had told us before this happened."

"I'm okay," I replied. "Really. I've had much worse. But what if he burns the building. Arsonists are a little crazy like that."

"This building is pretty safe," Tank said. "Commercial standards for fire safety are strict and Lester and Hector are both good with fire."

Before I could continue to fret about the building burning down around me, Frost stood. "Time to get you patched up," she declared.

"I have to make some calls," Tank told me. "Who do you want to carry you down?"

"I can walk," I protested.

"You can pick or I can," he countered. I had learned all too well that there was no getting around him when he spoke in that tone of voice.

"Lester," I decided. Tank called him and he was there within the space of a few heartbeats. He must have been hovering outside of the door. Frost led the way and Lester carried me.

The medical suite looked the same as always and smelled like antiseptic cleaner but overlaid over the antiseptic was something elusive that I wanted to taste. It made my muscles loose. I felt Lester's cock twitch and tried not to think about that or the scent. Lester sat me down on the exam table. Frost washed her hands but did not put on gloves. Bobby always put on gloves. Frost leaned in close to me, standing on her tiptoes to reach me better. The exam table was sized for someone Bobby's height but she didn't seem bothered by the stretch. With her hands in my hair, feeling for lumps on my skull, I could see down her shirt. I tried not to notice her lack of bra. The intoxicating scent that I couldn't identify surrounded me. Despite the pain, I could feel a little dampness begin in my panties. The pain when she pressed my bruised cheek bone to check for breaks flared and was absorbed by the warmth, transformed by the scent into something amazing.

Lester growled something I couldn't catch, breaking me out of the near-enthrallment. Frost stepped back from me and turned on some sort of high powered fan in the room. She apologized to us both and left the room for a moment. Lester was hard and straining in his pants. He shook his head as if to clear it and paced over to a cabinet. He pulled out a candle and somehow, it lit, though I didn't see a lighter. The scent of pine and christmas filled the room. He brought the candle over to sit it on the bed beside me but I flinched away from it.

"Not on the best terms with fire right now, Lester," I protested. "You'll catch the paper cover on fire too."

"I've got it, Stephanie," Lester assured me. "It won't burn you or the paper or anything except the candle wick to melt the wax. Promise." I wasn't sure how he could promise that but he sounded certain and I was too tired to fight with him. The evergreen scent had pushed away the last of the lingering scent I couldn't identify and I felt more clear headed. I was grateful for that.

Frost returned and apologized again to us. "I got out of control," she admitted. "I'm just so excited to get to work on Stephanie. Not that I want you to be hurt but I wanted to meet Ranger's woman." She examined the burns on my arms and treated them with a numbing gel but declared them superficial. Then she wiped the blood from my feet and determined that the bloody footprints I had left were from the water on my pants mixing with the blood from my belly. Lester helped me take my shirt off so she could get a good look and I was grateful that my bra was a cute pink and black pattern but not see through. She pressed around the cut and pulled the edges slightly apart to look in it. My blood got on her hands. She still hadn't but gloves on but it didn't seem to bother her.

She turned away to get suture supplies and I could have sworn she put one of those bloody hands up to her mouth or face. Was she sniffing or licking my blood from her hands? I couldn't really tell. She announced that I was dehydrated and anemic and Lester didn't question her assessment. He just grabbed me a bottle of water and a little brown pill that I recognized as iron and offered them to me. I took several gulps as Frost set up the suture kit on a tray beside me and prepared to start my stitches.

"Should I ask Ella to make up the bed in here and bring you down some clothes," Lester asked me to distract me from the local anesthetic Frost was injecting into me. I had to admit, her technique was faster and smoother than anyone else who had ever given me a local for stitches before.

"I don't need to sleep in the medical suite," I told Lester. "I'm not that hurt and the hospital bed is uncomfortable."

"You could sleep in Bobby's apartment," he suggested, as Frost made fast neat stitches on my numb belly. The cut had luckily only parted skin, not damaging any muscle underneath. It would be sore, because it was impossible not to move it or pull on it, but there wouldn't be any lasting damage. With the extra care and closeness of the stitches Frost was putting in, I probably wouldn't even scar.

"She needs someone to wake her up every two hours," Frost told him. "She hit her head in the struggle and several times after that trying to avoid the fires. I'm almost certain she didn't fracture her skull but she's fragile and she shouldn't be alone just in case there's a concussion."

"Want to sleep with me, Beautiful?" Lester asked.

I sniffled. "Not so beautiful right now, Les."

"She will come up to the seventh floor and sleep in Ranger's bed," Frost decided.

"That's your bed now," I protested, the words bitter in my mouth. I liked her. I didn't like that she'd been sleeping in Ranger's bed for the last six months. Who was she to him? But I had been seriously considering adding benefits to my friendship with several of the Merry Men so who was I to throw stones? Mostly, I just wished I had known. Then I wouldn't have tried to go hide there after the attack.

Frost just shrugged. "It's not a big thing. I rarely sleep at night. It's no trouble to take care of you."

Lester stared at her for a long moment, assessing something that I couldn't figure out. Maybe just her intent in offering to help. From my point of view, waking me up was medical care and her job. Lester would do it, but why should he have to miss out on sleep for me? Lester held my hand through the rest of the stitches and medical stuff but when we went up to seven, he retreated to five to brief everyone on what had happened.

Frost helped me put a waterproof covering over my stitches and left me to undress and shower on my own. A shower chair had appeared in Ranger's shower, probably from the medical suite on three. I sank into it gratefully, too exhausted and sore to try to stand to bathe. Partway through washing my hair, I made an involuntary yelp when the movement of my arms pulled too much on the stitches in the skin of my belly. There was a brief knock and Frost came in without waiting for my response. She checked the stitches, completely not phased by my nudity. I tried to remind myself that she was a doctor but the water from the shower couldn't completely cut through her intoxicating scent. Her hands on my scalp were gentle as she finished washing and conditioning my hair for me. She washed my back for me too. Her touch was impersonal, like having a nurse or other medical person help but the scent and the gentleness were more sensual than I would have expected.

"You need the help," she observed, apparently as skilled in ESP as Ranger. "No reason why it shouldn't feel good too."

She left me alone again to dress. When I emerged, I found Ella and an unfamiliar woman in her late 50's in the kitchen. Ella's sister was apparently a hair dresser. My hair ended up significantly shorter so that it was even and all of the burned pieces were trimmed off neatly. She was really gentle at getting the tangles out. It was as soothing as having my grandma brush my hair when I was a kid. By the time she was finished fixing my hair, I was ready to sleep.

Frost tucked me into Ranger's bed, smoothing the covers over me. For a brief moment, I thought she would kiss my head, like one of the merry men would have, but she didn't. The bed smelled more like Frost than like Ranger but I was wearing his T-shirt and I smelled like his shower gel. Frost's scent wasn't at all unpleasant or scary. It fuzzed my usual defenses and made me relaxed. Sleep claimed me quickly. Two hours later, Frost woke me and asked the standard questions. Each time she did that throughout the night, she was sitting up in bed beside me reading. I hadn't expected that but I was too sleepy to protest. Her touch and tone to wake me and question me were strictly professional.

The final time, I woke up to a male voice. I felt the pressure of someone lying behind me with their back against mine. Apparently Frost had decided to sleep with me. Lester sat beside me on the bed and tucked a strand of my newly trimmed hair behind my ear. "Large conference room briefing for everyone on your stalker in 30," he told me. "Thought you'd like to be there." Frost grumbled and rolled to her stomach, burying her head under the pillow. "You could come too," Lester told her cheerfully.

"Take her and go," Frost growled. "Before I decide to replace the missing sleep with a snack."

"She gets peckish if she doesn't sleep enough," Lester whispered, helping me sit up gingerly and get out of bed. "Safer to get you out of range."

* * *

**Next chapter you get to hear Tank's thoughts on Stephanie's stalker, Lester's POV from this chapter, and a little of Ranger's reaction to the news. I'll be on my cell all weekend and can't post from there but I'll try really hard to get it posted before I leave. If not, definitely Monday. Stephanie is operating without some critical information and will remain in the dark for a while longer but there's no need for you to be that confused, right?**


	4. Chapter 4

I don't like to make readers read multiple points of view of the same scene. It's frustrating to go back and read it again through a different set of eyes. I often write bits from other points of view to get in other characters heads and decide which is the best one to show readers. In this case, because our main POV character, Stephanie, is way out of the loop, going to remain confused about some things longer than others, AND I see no reason for you to remain confused - I have made an exception to the rule. This will hopefully be the only chapter that I need to do this with.

**Watch the changing POV, it switches multiple times.** I was only going to do Tank and Lester but **Basketcse** specifically requested Frost. It is my hope that this one time peak into the heads of the creatures surrounding Stephanie will give you a better idea of their thoughts and abilities so their reactions, obscure remarks, and things Stephanie notices about them later will make sense to you. Or if you really like this kind of thing, you can let me know.

* * *

_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

* * *

**Tank POV**

When I received the text from Hector, I immediately pulled up the elevator camera. The sight of Stephanie, obviously injured and that perfect bloody footprint on the elevator floor made the big cat that was my other self crouch down, silently preparing to spring on prey. Stephanie was ours to protect. Whoever harmed her would pay. I got that self under control enough to keep from slipping the human skin and went to check on her in person.

At the very back of the sea of black between me and Stephanie, Frost waited with the patience that my inner predator recognized well. She hadn't even met Stephanie yet so she was merely curious, not outraged by her injuries. I leaned into her back, breathing in the vampire's pheromones to help calm myself. Because she was calm and curious at the moment, they were perfect for settling me down and counteracting my desire to find someone to fight right now. She smiled up at me, amused by my need for calm and the change in her scent made my cock jump slightly. Those damn pheromones could be both a blessing and a curse.

I stepped past her and shouldered my way through my men. Frost's steps behind me were too silent for even me to hear but I could sense another predator at my back. Lester was to my left, part of the crowd. The dry scent of lizard and fire from him still made cat-self cautious. Human me knew that he had our back but the instincts were never completely silent. I scooped Stephanie up in my arms and ordered the men to go back to work now that they'd had time to see she was alright. Stephanie smelled of old fear, lizard, and smoke but that was overlaid by fresh pain scent and the contentedness of a nursing cub. She felt safe here, even in my arms. She wouldn't if she realized what was holding on to her.

In my office, I was relieved when Frost pronounced her well enough to tell us what had happened before getting medical treatment. When I heard about the gifts she'd been left, I was a little frustrated with her at first. How were we supposed to protect her if she didn't even tell us when there was a problem? Then as she continued and told us about what had just happened to her, I realized that we weren't dealing with just a human arsonist playing pranks. Mr. Kenneth Drake was a dragon-scion. I'd have to pull up his mug shot and send the picture around to pin down his bloodline. If it was a lesser line, we would be okay. Lester and Hector were considered mid-range and could easily counter anything a weak blooded scion could call up until we caught him. Ranger's blood was purer but he was definitely out of commission for a while. I still assured Stephanie that we could handle him and not to worry about him targeting Rangeman. There was no way to explain my concerns about bloodline in a way that would make sense to a human.

* * *

**Lester POV**

I realized as soon as Stephanie and I stepped into the medical suite that something was up with Frost. The pheromones were thick in the air and not the usual soothing sort. Soothing pheromones were an excellent tool for a doctor of people who were scared or upset or riding an adrenalin buzz. This was something entirely different and had no place in a medical suite, though at another time I might have been happy to take the beautiful and deadly creature up on the implied offer.

Instead, I stayed right by Stephanie, just in case Frost didn't have full control of her hunger. When was the last time she had been out to feed? It was clear she was in the grip of some strong emotions because as she leaned in to examine Stephanie's skull and face, the scent was thick and fresh and more than just passively arousing. It took every ounce of control not to bend her or Stephanie over the exam table and just take them. Stephanie whimpered in protest to something she was doing but that turned into a moan.

"Frost!" I protested, in a low hoarse voice. "What are you doing?"

She pulled back, looking embarrassed, and immediately flipped the switch to turn on the industrial fan and air filtration system. She apologized for her lapse and left the room to let the scent clear out a bit and give her a chance to shift back into a more neutral professional mood. I ignored my cock and shook my head hard to try to clear some of the lingering scent from my sinuses. It didn't help much so I dug in one of the cabinets for a candle. Bobby kept them on hand for those of us who were soothed by fire. I touched the wick briefly, calling a small cheery flame. The evergreen candle close to my face and the fire cleared the lingering pheromone effects so I brought it to sit near Stephanie to help clear her head and insulate her airspace from whatever Frost would be kicking out as she finished caring for her.

Stephanie was afraid of the candle's little flame but it was mine and I had it fully under control. I promised it was safe and I wished I could explain why there was no need to worry about a flame when she was around me. Ranger had forbidden it. She knew we were cousins and any revelation about my genetic anomaly from long distant ancestors would reveal his secret as well. He would kick my ass but he might thank me once he cooled off.

When Frost returned and apologized again, her calm and professional detachment were back. Her care of Stephanie was flawless and the pheromones had shifted back into the most passive and relaxing sort. When she tasted Stephanie's blood, I almost protested but when she noticed that all was not well with our Beautiful Bombshell, I instantly forgave her unconventional diagnostic technique. She hadn't lost control of her hunger. She was just being careful not to miss anything. Since everything seemed okay between them and Beautiful didn't like any of the other options, I allowed Frost to take her to seven while I went back to Tank's office to hear the details of what had happened to Stephanie and give him an update on her medical state. Frost wouldn't ever even consider that she might have to report on Stephanie's care to anyone.

* * *

**Frost POV**

I emerged from the stairwell on the fifth floor and stood behind a sea of black clad well armed men. Most of them were humans and all were surrounding the human woman that belonged to Ranger. They passed her around, giving her hugs and except for the occasional pain noise, she seemed to be comfortable with them, even enjoy the contact. It was interesting to see and clear why Ranger was completely enthralled with this woman. Fascinating. He was right. This was enough here to catch my attention and pull me from my study and seclusion. I was pleased that she had been hurt enough that I would get a chance to examine her up close.

Tank came up behind me. His body posture was tense but he inhaled my scent, something I couldn't actually smell for myself and seemed to relax. Very brave of him. I never knew just how strong the pheromones I was producing were so controlling them was a guessing game of watching others reactions and controlling my own emotions. I couldn't really accurately even warn someone of what they might feel if they got too much of a whiff. He shifted and moved past me, shouldering his way to the woman and carrying her to his office. She appeared comfortable in his arms. Another point in her favor though I had been warned that she didn't know of any of the scion bloodlines. Ranger didn't want her to learn about me either if it could be avoided but it might be good for him to be reminded again that I'm my own person and don't follow the orders of a child, or any orders.

As Stephanie talked to Tank, told him about what she had endured the past few weeks without asking for help and then what had happened just tonight, I began to admire her courage. I could see why Ranger wanted this one as his own. As I was examining her wounds, I was getting more and more angry on her behalf. There's no excuse for allowing that intensity of emotion. When the dragon-scion reacted angrily, I noticed their reactions to my pheromones and felt deep embarrassment, which likely only added to the messy stew in the air. I am really old enough to know better so I excused myself from the room.

With a few minutes of meditation and mindfulness exercises, I felt more rooted in the present moment. I was able to return to the medical room and do my job without further distressing my patient. Silly trusting human even agreed to come upstairs alone with me to her apartment and no matter what she or Ranger said, I had snooped around enough to be sure that it was her apartment just as much as his.

* * *

**Lester POV**

"Let's get Ranger in on a video call if Bobby can keep him conscious," Tank suggested as I entered his office.

Bobby answered the call to his cell and then set up the laptop for the skype call. Skype isn't secure but it's a miracle for video calling and screen sharing. Chances of someone listening in and thinking this was anything but a role playing game were slim to none. Since time would be limited, he made sure all those mundane preparations were complete before he gave Ranger an injection to wake him and enough local pain killer at his foot and arm regrowth sites to keep him coherent temporarily.

"Hey Primo," I said as soon as Ranger opened his eyes.

"Babe?" he asked, pain in his voice.

"She's going to be okay," I assured him and gave a brief update on her medical care. He trusted Frost and dismissed the pheromone issue early on as unimportant and outside of her control.

"What happened?" he asked. His voice was steadier as the wake up juice and pain killers took full effect. Our metabolism made that happen quickly but it would flush out the toxins just as quickly.

Tank detailed what Stephanie had told him about the past weeks and the stalker's game of leaving her burnt presents and then detailed the attack tonight, finishing with his conclusion that Kenneth the former skip was from one of the dragon lineages.

"Picture?" Ranger asked. I could tell that he was getting fuzzy again. Bobby gave him more local injections of pain killers, which Ranger ignored completely. Tank sent pictures of Kenneth Drake's mug shot and driver's license photo. "Balaur's line," Ranger identified him. "Extremely inbred. Closer to my level than Lester's, I think. Prone to rage, self combustion, and schizophrenia."

Tank and I shared a look. We'd give our lives for Stephanie if necessary but neither one of us could go against a dragon-scion that strong and expect to win. Especially if he were crazy and listening only to the voices in his head. We didn't just have Stephanie to protect but a whole building full of humans who depended on us.

"So when can you get back here? This is a lot more work than we expected while you're off on your little recuperation vacation."

Ranger's chuckle turned into a groan. "I'll be there as soon as I can. Ask Bobby. Tell Babe I …" and he passed out again.

Bobby turned the computer so we could see him. "I can't give him more wake up juice yet," he explained. "Even your hearts won't tolerate it in large quantities. He needs to rest."

"We need him here," I countered.

"How long?" Tank asked.

"Another day for the internals. They're healing well. Maybe 48 hours for the foot. But that arm is going to take at least another week or 10 days. It came off just below the shoulder."

"We can work with that," Tank said. "This guy has mostly been just playing with her for like a month before he escalated. Maybe he'll even lose interest." I doubted that but the feline was in charge with Ranger gone. We could hope for the best.

* * *

**Frost POV**

The human was exhausted and didn't balk even once as I partially undressed her and put waterproof coverings where they were needed for her to be able to shower the lingering smoke smell from the rest of her. I assured her that I'd be outside waiting if she needed help and that Ella was bringing someone to trim her hair. I ended up helping her in the shower. She had a thing for Ranger's shower gel and once again, I was struck by her courage. She had never met me but she was allowing me to help her in an intimate way. I allowed myself to like her, to imagine us becoming friends even but when she tensed up, obviously embarrassed by enjoying the shower a bit too much, I pulled back to reassure her and centered back in the now to change back over to soothing. The haircut was interesting to watch.

Ella's sibling was clearly professionally skilled. When I tucked Stephanie into bed, the emotions rose in me again. I could see why Ranger cared for her so much. If I wasn't careful, I would fall just as deeply. That would be a disaster for the whole branch because if I was kicking out that level of pheromones, the building's filtration wouldn't keep up. It would be an orgy in here. And while that could be fun for a while, one of the scions would eventually break free and put an end to it and maybe end me as well. This was why I stayed secluded most times, playing puppet master from afar. I was far too impulsive sometimes. It wasn't really safe for us to be out among the humans until we were too old and cold to feel much for them. I was old enough to know better than to care, old enough that I could and did spend periods of time wandering the world. It was very rare for me to really be interested in individuals these days rather than focused on outcome and greater good.

I settled in beside her in the bed, started my newest book, and focused on that and the texture of the pages and the experience of reading. I used detached, professional calm when it was time to wake her. Then, when the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon and I was certain she wouldn't suffer ill effects from sleeping too long at a stretch, I crawled under the covers with her and joined her in sleep. It felt like only moments before Lester woke her. I grumbled at him, threatened her. They went away. The pressure of the sun pushed me back into sleep and there was no compelling reason to resist.

* * *

**Did you enjoy your visit inside of the creature's heads? Want more of that? Or, 'please Zetharin don't do that to us again'? Or maybe just one viewpoint trading off with Stephanie's? If so, who did you like the most? You have to tell me what you want. Next chapter back to Stephanie. Monday or Tuesday.**


	5. Chapter 5

_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

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_**(Stephanie POV, after Lester woke her up at the end of chapter 3)**_

I dressed and took care of the necessary morning rituals in the bathroom. I fought to stay awake. I would have been happy to crawl back in bed with Frost. Oddly, once I was out of the bedroom and into the living room where Lester had been amusing himself lighting about a dozen different scents of candles, I was instantly more alert. I eyed the candles warily but they were all in jars and seemed to be safe to leave burning. Ella had left me a plate with breakfast in the kitchen and I munched on the egg, veggie and cheese filled wrap in the elevator on the way downstairs. Lester hadn't left me time for anything else. I made sure to grab a key fob from the dish by the door so I could go back up when I was ready later.

The large conference room was full of the Merry Men that I knew were the most trusted. The ones that always got sent on Bombshell Duty. I guess the clients were making do with the second or third string guys for now because Tank had pulled the ones he considered to be the best to help with me. Of course, if crazy Kenneth was going to hit Rangeman next, it was in everyone's best interest to catch him and eliminate the problem before the building burned down around our ears. Tank passed out the original file I had gotten on him when he was a skip and then added a second file. Apparently 'Kenneth Drake' was an alias for something else. He handed Hector, Lester, Zip, and Zero their files specifically and then let the other men pass the stack around to each take one. Weird. I got a file from the stack and glanced over the additional information there. Someone had run a very detailed search. I'm not sure what the four with the thicker files got to see but from their quickly closed off expressions, it was even worse than the stuff I was reading.

Tank detailed the team assignments in the field for looking for the guy, stressed that if they had eyes on him they needed to call for backup or take him out from a distance and NOT even think about trying to take him down up close alone. He told them to see someone in the armory about tranquilizer rifles and then stressed that they shouldn't trust the drugs. "You shoot him, call for backup, and shoot him again if he so much as twitches."

"Overdose?" Junior asked.

"Not a concern," Tank replied.

Then Tank went on to detail increased security on the building and fire safety precautions before switching abruptly to my safety plan, which seemed to be to stay here as much as possible.

"You're telling me that I'm stuck here until he burns us out?" I asked Tank, my voice rising in panic.

"We're not going to trap you here little girl. I'm just asking you to please take Lester or Hector when you leave and not leave more often than necessary."

"Why one of them specifically?" Some of the Rangemen around the table looked just as curious about that as I was, maybe even a little insulted. Tank and Hector wore blank face masks. Lester wouldn't meet my eyes. Zip and Zero exchanged knowing glances with each other. They did that a lot at other times too.

"Their skills are the best suited to taking on an arsonist."

My spidey sense was going haywire. There was a whole lot they weren't telling me but most of the men here seemed to be in the dark too. I hated when their classified shit ended up hurting me and they still didn't want to tell me what the hell was going on. "If that's all then, I'm going back upstairs to bed," I told them in a huff. "Being woken up every few hours because of a concussion is not the same as good sleep and my head still hurts too much to pry whatever you're not telling me out of you."

"Why don't you use Bobby's apartment rather than disturb Frost?" Lester suggested. "You don't really want to sleep with her again, do you?" I felt my face heat up and just knew I was bright red. Everyone at the table suddenly looked really interested. Some of them shifted uncomfortably and seemed to be trying to hide wolf grins behind their blank faces. A few looked horrified.

"Little girl, please tell me he's joking." Tank looked seriously concerned.

"We were just sleeping," I explained hastily.

"Both of you in the same bed?" Tank clarified. I nodded that that was correct and he ran his hand over his shaved head, closing his eyes for a long moment. "You should definitely take Bobby's apartment," he finally said. "Or hell, take mine. Don't go back up there."

"All of my clothes are up there and my hair stuff and stuff," I replied. "It's not a big deal. I'll sleep on the couch. I'm not crawling into bed with her."

"You don't need to sleep on the couch," Tank protested. "There is a bed in Bobby's apartment unused or I'll sleep somewhere else and you can take my bed."

"I can't kick you out of your apartment and I don't know how Bobby would feel about me in his. Ranger never minds if I sleep on seven." I wasn't sure why this was a big deal but if I was going to be stuck here, I wanted to be in Ranger's apartment, surrounded by our stuff.

"Let's call Bobby," Tank suggested. He pulled out his cell phone.

"Bobby's somewhere you can call him?" I asked. "Ranger too? Can I talk to him?" I had left my cell at my apartment but there were plenty of phones around here to use. Ranger was back! Why wasn't he here? Peripherally I noticed Tank dismissing most of the men while I focused on Lester, who had taken my hand.

"They're both stateside," Lester explained. "But Ranger's not at 100% yet. It's bad for his street rep to come back to Trenton before he's fully healed. That's what he's doing now, healing."

"Will he be okay?" I hated the quiver of almost tears in my voice. I wanted Ranger back. I didn't care if he was still healing.

Lester's thumb stroked my hand gently. "He'll be fine. Promise. He's just drugged out of his mind and sleeping a lot, okay?"

"I could go stay where he is," I suggested. "It's gotta be, like, a super safe house if it's safe for an injured Ranger to stay in while he's healing, right? So you could hide me there from Kenneth."

The guys that seemed to be in the know were the only ones remaining when I looked around the table. None of them seemed to want to explain. Tank picked out a contact on his cell, hit send, and put it on speaker before sitting it on the table.

"Talk," Bobby's familiar voice demanded in greeting.

"You're on speaker," Tank warned him. "Frost's staying in Ranger's apartment and Steph is insisting that she stay up there too so she doesn't invade the privacy of your apartment without invitation. She slept with Frost last night."

"Is Ranger there?" I demanded, before Bobby could speak.

"He's here, Steph," Bobby assured me. "He's resting. I'm never more than about 30 feet from him. He's healing. He's safe." Tank cleared his throat and Bobby added, "Take my apartment until this stalker mess is sorted out or until I get back so Frost can leave."

"I want to sleep in Ranger's apartment if I have to be confined to the building," I argued. "All of my stuff is there and Frost seems nice enough not to mind."

"Babe?" I heard Ranger ask in the background.

"Ranger!" I shouted. Bobby cursed softly and murmured something to Ranger that was too quiet for me to hear. Then he announced that he was putting the phone on speaker at their end as well.

"You slept with Frost last night in my bed?" He sounded in pain but like he just had to confirm that bit of information. I imagined the wolf grin.

"Yup. I don't know why these guys are having temper tantrums about it. She was perfectly nice. It's not like she bites."

Ranger made a sound like he wanted to laugh but knew it would hurt. "You'd be surprised, Babe," he replied. "You're welcome on seven if that's where you want to be. Always. Kick Frost out if she bothers you. They can shuffle around on four to give Frost an apartment there. She doesn't like three because she can hear the hum of the servers."

"The servers are soothing," Bobby protested.

"It's time for my meds, Babe. Stay safe, okay? Enjoy having Frost in the building. I'll be home as soon as I can."

There was a distinct click as Bobby turned the speaker phone off. Then he said his goodbyes to us, reiterating that I could use his apartment if I needed to or make the 'z-pups' double up and steal one of their apartments.

"Z-pups," I asked Zip and Zero after Tank hit the end call button. They shrugged in unison. I kept staring.

Finally Zip said, "We're distantly related. Something like fifth or sixth cousins? Genealogy isn't my gig. But we grew up together. Sharing an apartment wouldn't be a big deal."

"Luis could probably even get us bunk beds," Zero added with enthusiasm that I wasn't sure was faked. "It would be just like when we were kids."

Lester had pulled Tank into a corner of the room. "Did you hear that?" he was asking Tank. "Ranger told her to enjoy having Frost here. That's practically permission." I wondered what Lester thought it was permission for. I just thought it was a suggestion to enjoy having someone else female in the building for a while. Girl talk and pedicures and stuff.

"Don't even think it," Tank countered in a voice so low, I could barely hear it. "The building's filtration isn't up to that."

"It would be fine," Lester insisted. "It's a big building. How bad could it get?"

"Much worse than you think," Tank replied. "Mats at lunchtime. Maybe some sparing will knock some sense into you." Then he strode out of the room. Hector followed me with a blank face but concern in his eyes as I went to the elevator and hit the key fob button for seven. "Watch your neck," he advised me cryptically as the elevator doors closed.

I ate the rest of the breakfast Ella had left for me in the kitchen and then turned on the TV with the volume down low so I could nap in the living room without disturbing Frost. When I woke up, she was sitting at my feet, leafing through the file Tank had given me.

"There is a lot of information missing from this," she said as soon as my eyes opened without ever appearing to look at me.

"Ask Tank," I suggested. "There must be something classified involved. Some of the guys got thicker files. Maybe they have the information you expected to see?"

"Who had the additional information?"

I pictured the way we had been sitting at the table. "Lester, Zip, Zero and Hector," I told her.

She nodded as if that made sense to her. Then she looked up at me with a tiny hint of a frown. She didn't really have a blank face like the merry men did to cover her emotions. It was like, most of the time, she didn't even have any strong emotions. "It's wrong of them not to tell you," she declared.

"Do you know whatever it is they're not sharing?" I asked, filled instantly with the insistent curiosity I had been trying to ignore.

"Your friend Kenneth can control fire with his mind," Frost told me.

I felt like a cartoon character with a light bulb turning on above my head. Suddenly so much made sense. He wasn't just a crazy guy. That explained a lot about the way the fire had behaved last night and why he had been leaving me burned things. He wasn't just a normal crazy arsonist. "Like an unmentionable?"

"Very similar," Frost confirmed.

"Then shouldn't someone call Diesel?"

"Tank knows," she replied, dismissing my suggestion. "If that person needed called, Tank would have called him."

My spidey sense was alerting me again. She was telling me something but still dodging as much as Tank had been earlier. I narrowed my eyes at her and blurted out the first thing that popped into my head, "What's similar to an unmentionable but not an unmentionable?"

Her lips twitched in as almost smile. "You're smart. Intuitive. Are you sure you're not one of us?"

"The unmentionables I've met say I'm not one of them."

"Definitely not," Frost agreed.

I repeated the question, "What's similar to an unmentionable but not an unmentionable?" There was a key there. I was sure of it. I just couldn't put my finger on why.

Frost gave me a wide smile, flashing a tiny set of fang teeth. "Me, for one," she told me. I froze. My hind-brain recognizing a predator and knowing sudden moves could entice one to strike. "I'm not hungry," she assured me, even as I drew my legs up slowly, putting more distance between us on the couch. I doubted it would make much of a difference. "You wanted to know," she reminded me. "Keeping you in the dark about someone who might attack you is wrong. Wouldn't you rather know what you're up against?"

There was a scent in the room that didn't seem like it was coming from the candles that were still lit. It threaded through those scents, too light to be sure of. I licked my lips. I felt too warm, uncomfortable. I couldn't figure out why my panties were getting damp. The scent teased me, tempted me, relaxed me and aroused me at the same time. I don't know how long we sat there, her watching me intently, me gradually getting calmer when she made no overt threatening moves.

"Vampire?" I finally asked.

"Yes." Her voice was soothing but there was a lilt of something else. She found this all very intriguing, even amusing.

"Does Ranger know?" I wondered out loud.

Her eyes swirled with just a hint of silver. "He ordered me not to tell you. I'm not always the best at following orders." She waited for a moment, watching me intently, expectantly, but I couldn't form any of the questions that swirled through my head into words. I was just too shocked, despite the scent that pulled at me, urging me to relax, enjoy it, move towards her. "I better shower," she finally said and left the room abruptly, releasing my from my paralysis.

A glance at the clock in the kitchen as I fled told me it was lunchtime. I would be able to find Tank and Lester in the gym. I wondered if they knew Frost's secret too and if they didn't, should I tell them?

* * *

**A/N** - Not next chapter (which is half-way done) but the chapter after that, there's a fork in the potential story line. We can fight Frost's pheromones until Ranger gets back or we can enjoy their effect on everyone. Lester seems to think we have Ranger's permission and Ranger definitely knew what Frost could do when he asked her to stay at Rangeman. :-) If you have an opinion on which route the story should take, leave a **comment** (guest/anonymous is fine) telling me which path you think we should take.


	6. Chapter 6

_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

* * *

**_(Stephanie POV)_**

I burst into the brightly lit gym. Some guys were working on the weight machines. Others ran on treadmills. Lester and Tank were on the sparring mats. I felt silly for running. Down the stairs and through the hallways was too far for me to run without someone chasing me and Frost had been perfectly polite. I approached the mats more slowly, holding my side.

"Beautiful?" Lester asked as I collapsed to sit on the edge of the mats.

"Stephanie, what's wrong?" Tank asked, coming to kneel beside me.

"Frost..." I didn't know what to say. Did they know what was living on their seventh floor? And if they did, would she get in trouble for telling me? She was right. I did have a right to know what was after me, even if it was some scary not-unmentionable who could control fire. She was a stranger and she had told me more of what was going on than these men I had come to trust and depend on. She would have told me more if I hadn't panicked like a bunny rabbit seeing the shadow of a hawk.

"Did she hurt you?" Lester asked, looming over Tank's tense shoulders to get a good look at me. Tank looked ready to kill and my immediate 'no' response to that question didn't seem to settle him. "Did she come on to you?" Lester pressed. When I shook my head again, he continued, "Did you come on to her?" I hadn't. I was straight. Or I thought I was. But I had wanted to and that freaked me out almost as much as the vampire thing.

Tank brushed my short hair back from my face. It didn't stay behind my ears as well anymore. Before I could figure out what to tell them or not tell them, Frost sauntered casually into the gym. She obviously could take the same lightning fast showers that the men could take. Tank stood and got in her face but as he got into her personal space, the angry look on his face smoothed out. Her lips twitched in an almost smile and she shook her head at him, like chiding a child that should know better. She stepped past him and sat on the mats next to me.

"We okay?"

I narrowed my eyes at her, feeling my muscles relax almost instantly. "No biting."

She laughed. "Only if you ask nicely," she promised.

"You might regret that rule, Beautiful," Lester said.

"He knows?" I asked her. "I didn't want to get you in trouble."

"They can't do anything to me," Frost assured me. "I'd love to see them try. Good times."

"Who knows?"

"Tank, Ranger, Bobby, Zip, Zero, Lester, Hector, and Cal."

"Flaming skull guy?" I clarified.

"He's dating a healer," Frost explained absently, looking around the gym. "There is quite a lot of eye candy around here at lunch time isn't there."

"There's eye candy all day," I assured her. I wanted to ask what one of those was and why Ranger hadn't gotten one of them as a doctor instead of a vampire but I was almost afraid to. I hadn't even really absorbed the 'Frost is a vampire' thing yet and had a ton of questions about that. "Sometimes more than others. They come in depending on when their shifts are. No need to get up at five am to take in the largest amount of scenery. You've been living here for six months and not came down to the gym?"

Frost shrugged, glanced around as if to gauge the distance between us and the merry men who were pretending not to pay attention. "There are reasons for me to stay apart."

"Sounds lonely," I replied.

"It is," she admitted. "I'm used to it though. It's better."

"Why?" I pressed.

"Want to spar with me?" she asked. I couldn't decide if it was a diversion or an answer. Lester's eyes widened and he took a big step back from the mats. Tank put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him another step back. Saying something in his ear too low for me to hear. Sounded like something about fans.

"I'm not very good at sparring," I replied. "They've mostly taught me some stuff to quickly disable an attacker or get out of a hold. Dirty fighting stuff."

"Who wants to spar with me?" she asked the room in general.

Woody volunteered. I hadn't done any hand to hand with him and he towered over her by probably close to a full foot but Frost didn't appear to be intimidated by the typical Rangeman size or muscles. They sparred, seeming to use several different martial arts techniques but I noticed that Frost's was cleaner, fewer dirty tricks.

I stood near Lester. "Is she letting him win?"

"Vampire super strength is a myth," he replied. "She's studied hard and martial arts is great for self control but she doesn't fight often. It shows."

As she got tired and struggled more to hold her own, the scent that came from her got strong again. Tank had turned on fans in the room but they just moved the air around. It wasn't an exhaust fan, venting outside like the medical suite had. I was very aware of the strong arm Lester draped over me. I nestled closer to him, still watching the fight. He turned towards me and his cock brushed against me. There were layers of fabric between us but it was still all too obvious. I pulled away from him and bumped into Tank, who was also erect. I had never seen the two of them do that in the gym before. It was all business before and that never changed when they were sparring with me, even if they had me pinned. What the hell was happening here? I looked around the gym and every single male there had a tent in their pants that they were either trying to ignore or trying with varying degrees of success to hide.

"I think the fans are making it worse," Tank told Lester, noticing the direction of my gaze.

"Shit," Lester replied. "We need to stop this little demonstration." He stepped onto the mats, signalling them to stop sparring and they both came to stand with us. The closer Frost got to me, the more I realized just how amazing she smelled. My eyes were drawn again to all of the cocks in the room and I just wanted to knock one of them over and climb on.

"You're doing this?" I asked Frost.

"I can't control it but it happens. It's defensive. That's why it's better for me to be alone." I couldn't stand the sadness in her voice. "I'd better go back upstairs before I cause a riot."

"How can you get better at dealing with it in a group if you always hide away?" I asked.

"I need to shower again and you need to shower to get the scent off of you. It will cling to your clothes and keep activating your own hormones if you don't. After that, we can talk if you want." She looked around the gym. "They all think they need a sexual release, right NOW but all they really need is to wash the scent away or mask it, like with the candles, and they'll be back to normal."

I used the elevator while Frost took the stairs. Something told me that being in a small enclosed space with her just now would be a bad idea. She showered first, fast. Then she showed me the diaper genie Ella had rigged as a hamper and ushered me into the shower. I thought I would end up using the shower massager but by the time I was clean, the urge had passed.

Frost was laying in Ranger's bed when I came out of the shower. I felt a brief irrational surge of jealousy at seeing another woman there. "What's between you and Ranger?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"He escaped his mother when he was younger to go exploring in the woods one summer. He was an adventurous little monster." She smiled fondly at the memory. "He got hurt falling out of a tree and because it was near the isolated cabin where I had been staying, I stumbled over him before his mother did. I set the break and helped him get home. We've been in sporadic contact since then. A few years back, he and a team did a very large favor for me. Me being here is his payback."

"You knew him as a child?" That was a little weird. She looked like she was in her late twenties.

"Yeah. He was a scrawny little thing back then."

"Did you and he ever..." I couldn't finish the question.

She knew what I meant though because she shrugged, "It's been tempting. The man has the body of a god but it would have just been hormones triggered by pheromones. That's fine with me most of the time. Without the triggers, he doesn't feel that way about me though. Taking advantage of anyone when they'd say 'no' otherwise is wrong. No better than rape."

It was an interesting line to draw. "What about the other guys here?" I asked.

She shrugged again. "They see an attractive woman. I'm sure many of them have frequent one night stands and wouldn't feel awkward or regret having sex with me. Those men are fair game. They'd never remember being bitten either." Her brow furrowed. "I need to rebandage those stitches. You got them wet in the shower. And you need to eat. That iron pill last night can't really help your anemia if you don't remember to eat regularly too."

We went to the kitchen where I let her re-bandage the cut in my stomach and put more numbing stuff on the burns covering my arms. As I poked around in the refrigerator, finding things to make a sandwich with, I realized the counter was empty. "Rex!"

"Rex?"

"My hamster. I left him at my apartment. What if Kenneth gets him?"

"You can't leave a dependent for the monster to burn. The men can't claim that saving him isn't necessary."

"You think whatever Kenneth is makes him a monster?" I asked. "You're a vampire. Isn't that kinda the pot calling the kettle black?"

"Being a dragon-scion does not make Kenneth a monster. What he chooses to do with his power does. Power is for protecting those you love, not for selfishness."

It was clear that she strongly believed that and despite her being a vampire and sleeping in Ranger's bed, I admitted to myself that I really liked her as a person. I called down to Tank's office to tell him about needing to get Rex and my purse from my apartment. He protested but eventually gave way to my determination to get Rex myself. I had left him in danger. It was my responsibility to get him back out. He suggested that I eat and give the men a bit more time to sort themselves out after the 'demonstration' in the gym and he'd have Hector meet me in the garage in 60 minutes. I used that time to eat. Frost didn't, though she did sip from a bottle of water.

The trip to my apartment with Hector was mostly wordless. He swept the apartment and then chilled on my couch while I gathered Rex and my purse and some menstrual supplies since my period was due in a few days and I didn't want to ask Ella to get them. There was no way of knowing when they'd let me out of Haywood again. Before we left, I listened to the messages on my answering machine. The tape was full and took a really long time to get through but the gist of it was that Mom expected me to be there for dinner, or else. I called her and tried to explain that I had a new stalker and couldn't come. It didn't work. Grandma just yelled in the background for me to bring my newest Rangeman hottie to dinner and mom started freaking out about the rumors about me moving into a building with all of those men.

"Mom! There's another woman there sharing the apartment I'm staying in with me. I'm not the only woman there."

"Well bring her to dinner too," mom said. " I want to meet her."

I promised to ask but since I was at my apartment now and it was so close to dinner time already, I didn't know if I could bring her. That she might already have plans was a perfect excuse since I didn't even know if she could eat food. As soon as I extracted myself from the conversation with my mom, I called Frost to ask if she wanted to join me, explaining my mother's insistence on meeting her as well as I could.

"You and me and Hector at your family dinner?" Frost asked.

"It will be fun." For some definitions of fun. "And it will keep my mom off my back for a few days, keeping her out of the line of fire."

Frost heaved a big sigh but also seemed almost pleased to be asked. "Sure," she agreed. "I'll be ready to go with you when you and Hector stop by to drop off your pet."

When I put Rex's cage in the breakroom, Frost was leaning over the men on monitors, apparently asking them about something. They answered her in dreamy voices. I wondered if they had been told to tell her anything she wanted to know or if they just couldn't say 'no' to anything with her scent in their nostrils. A normal visitor wouldn't get to have the information they were giving her. If Ranger or Tank hadn't given an order to be open with her, she was proving that she'd be a genius as an interrogator. The relaxed Frost pheromones, the ones that made people sleepy and content were going to be a hit at dinner if she stayed that way.

Despite the chaos when we first arrived at my parents' house, Frost remained indifferent. Nothing my mom or grandmother said could penetrate her armor. She was polite enough but I could see that nothing that happened touched her. Frost could, in fact, eat food, though she didn't eat much or with any enthusiasm. She was barely giving off any pheromones and they competed with the scent of dinner and Lisa's dirty diaper. They were enough though to temper Mom's disapproval of my job into mildness instead of being extreme. Dad actually talked at the dinner table to Hector who apparently spoke enough Italian to have a brief conversation. It was an amazing transformation of the household. All and all, it was a much more pleasant meal than anticipated.

I gave mom and grandma hugs on the porch as we were leaving. Frost stood with me. Hector had started to walk across the front yard to start the SUV. He beeped it unlocked and then started it by remote, showing off his newest electronic toy to my dad. The SUV purred to life immediately but then there was an explosion, a wave of heat and sound as the SUV was engulfed in flames.

* * *

_*There's a line in this chapter that's very close to a line from another book, Night Huntress world. Possibly not an exact quote because it's from memory.*_

There's a **bonus pure smut M/M scene** after the gym scene in this chapter. I realize that's not everyone's thing. Zeveray wrote it and kept it purely vanilla. If you want to read it, **comment here** (anonymous is okay) and then **email me a copy of your comment** to:** thespiritforged at gmail dot com** and I'll email you the scene. Follow directions. I want a comment here and an email of the comment to send you the bonus smut early. If you're patient, the first six chapters, including the bonus scene, will go up on the blog sometime next week.

Feel free to comment even if you don't want to read the smut, of course. I love comments.


	7. Chapter 7

**Warning** - this chapter contains some mild smut. More people wanted to enjoy Frost's pheromones than fight her. There's actual plot stuff too though. :-)

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_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

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Cal was on monitors when Hector's vehicle suddenly disappeared. Bombshell was with Hector so her usual car destruction SOP's took precedence. A few keystrokes sent out the page that nearly made Tank's heart stop. Boots thundered down the stairs. Hector's call to assure them that everyone was okay wasn't fast enough to stop them but it did mean that most of them were able to not break too many traffic laws on their way over.

Tank arrived at about the same time as the fire trucks, Stephanie's family had been convinced to stay inside in case there was more danger. Frost sat on the porch swing with Stephanie, who wore a glazed sleepy look as she chatted with Morelli. Tank approached Hector. "You just let it burn?" he asked. A burning SUV was well within Hector's abilities to put out.

"It didn't spread and it won't. More would be suspicious."

"How did the stalker find you? It's not like her going to dinner tonight specifically was planned."

Hector frowned. "No one was messing with this fire but me. Seemed like an ignition based bomb to me. Why would a strong dragon use one of those? He wants to start the fire, feel stuff crumble as it burns away under his power. Bombs aren't the same at all." He looked a little dreamy as he described the feeling of burning something. Tank hid a shudder behind his blank face. The dragon-scions could be a little creepy about fire. Smart creatures knew to avoid it.

"Fire is fire, right?" Tank asked. Hector looked at him for a moment like he was nuts. Fire had personality. It was more than just fire. They regarded the burning SUV in contemplation. Hector encouraging the blaze to die quickly under the firemen's efforts. No stray sparks to endanger the houses or other cars nearby. No one got burned.

A yell from Stephanie got their attention. "It wasn't my fault Joe! Not my car. Not my stalker."

"You have another stalker!? There weren't any reports." He loomed over the two women on the swing and his arms gestured wildly to match his loud voice and obviously unprofessional level of emotion. He was never professional about Stephanie being in any sort of danger.

"It's none of your fucking business Joe." There was a note of fear in Stephanie's voice despite the defiance.

Frost stood, getting in Joe's face. "That's enough," she said quietly. Her voice was deadly soft and Tank circled around to be upwind. He doubted her pheromones were soothing anymore. Stephanie stood, putting herself between Frost and Joe.

"He was just leaving. Right, Joe?" She looked up at the police officers swarming the scene. "Eddie will take my statement. Which isn't really much because I have no idea why Hector's SUV exploded."

"Yeah Frost," Tank said. "Joe's leaving. You might want a walk maybe to help you calm down?"

"I'm fine," Frost replied through clenched teeth.

Stephanie put a hand on the vampire's arm. "I need a walk. I'm too antsy to sit anymore waiting for them to get to me. Will you walk with me just up the block and back?" Frost gave her a look. She knew when she was being handled but chose to be amused.

Joe stomped off while Stephanie and Tank were distracting Frost. He didn't know what was up with Stephanie's friend but he both feared her on a deep level and wanted to hurt her. Darkness churned in his soul as he imagined the things he'd like to do to her to make her submit to his will and beg for mercy. She was too self assured and needed to be brought down a couple of pegs.

By the time Eddie finished with the other witnesses and took Stephanie and Frost's statements, the vampire had reclaimed her inner calm, making the questioning go easier. Hector had gone back to the building with the other merry men but Lester and Tank remained to escort the two women back to Haywood.

Stephanie just wanted to go up to the apartment to shower and find comfort food and sleep. Tank and Lester mentioned that they were planning to update Ranger. Frost wanted to talk to him too and Stephanie wasn't willing to be left out of that so the four of them all took the elevator to seven. Lester lit candles around the apartment immediately. Stephanie saw him pick up a lighter from the counter but she never heard it flick or saw it used. Tank put the phone on speaker and laid it on the breakfast bar when he called, trying to figure out how he was going to get Stephanie to step away so he could give Ranger the full details that they weren't supposed to share with Stephanie. He resigned himself to calling Ranger back for a full briefing after the brief briefing was finished and he could get some privacy. Lester gave Ranger a brief rundown of the events while Tank was still trying to sort out what he could say and what he couldn't in front of Stephanie.

"What?" Ranger snapped and Tank pulled his attention back to Lester's words.

"Lester is right," Frost agreed. "The man called Joe reacted very aggressively to my pheromones. Much more so than usual. I shouldn't have gotten so out of control but I worry for any women he crosses paths with tonight."

Tank rubbed a hand over his head. "I'll take care of it," he said, stepping deeper into the living room to call down to the control room and have someone put on Joe for the night.

"Babe?" Ranger asked, surprised that they were discussing pheromones openly with the human in the room. Frost never could follow orders and he felt sure it had been her to break the code of silence. Vampires were too few to have anyone holding them accountable the way the scions did. He heard the rustle of clothing as Stephanie shrugged.

"She was sitting with me on the swing," Stephanie explained. "It was nice to feel so calm after an explosion and not all adrenalin buzzed for once. The Joe loomed over me and started yelling. You know how he is." She glanced at Frost. "I think she was protecting me. Joe never would have hurt me or anyone though."

Tank picked up the report, concisely conveying everything else that had happened that he colud say in front of Stephanie. Ranger considered for a long moment, trying to focus through the increasing pain of the latest local injections wearing off again. He wasn't much of a strategist right now. He couldn't trust himself not to miss things. Tank was excellent at following orders and sticking to the plan but he wasn't a brilliant leader. Frost was. Frost had a ton of experience with strategy, which she viewed mostly as a game, and the connections to find this guy. He told them to let Frost have access to everything and let her run this operation. Tank and Lester had point in the field but for fact finding, Frost was their best bet. She was the most likely to recognize a name or obscure connection.

"Can just you and I talk for a minute?" Stephanie asked Ranger when he asked if there were any questions.

Ranger clenched his jaw and tightened the fingers of his working hand into a fist before deliberately relaxing both, trying to get the cramping muscles in his foot and left arm to release as well. "Sure, Babe. Give me a few minutes to grab some more painkillers. I'll call back." Then there was a distinct click as he hung up the call. Stephanie said goodbye to Tank and he and Frost left. Frost making a brief comment about finding some actual dinner before coming back to the apartment.

Lester lingered. They exchanged some of the slightly suggestive banter that she had been sharing with Lester for the last few months. She felt guilty because Ranger was out there, recovering from apparently some nasty wounds and she was here chatting with Lester, wanting Lester. She wanted to blame it on Frost's pheromones getting them all worked up but she had to admit that she had wanted Lester before too. This just made him harder to resist. He was certainly willing to accommodate anything she would be willing to accept from him. He had told her that months ago.

Ranger called while Lester was still in the apartment. She answered the phone and tried to shove Lester out the door. She only ended up enjoying the feel of hard muscles under her hand. Ranger heard the sound of their tussle and prompted, "Babe?"

"Lester won't leave," she explained.

"It's okay. Tell me how you're handling all of this?" Ranger asked, drifting slightly on the pain meds while they were useful. "Learning about vampires."

"I haven't really learned much," she admitted. "Frost seems sad and lonely. Are they all like that?"

"To some extent. There are few of them and they are mostly solitary creatures except when they're hunting. Then watch out. Those pheromones are kind of an annoyance in day to day life but they make her a quiet and effective predator."

"She seems like a good person, like she wouldn't use the pheromones to force anything I didn't want. And I don't. Not really. I'm straight."

"She's a vampire, Babe. She may agree with that idea in theory but if she thinks it's to her advantage to misplace her morals, she's more than happy to do so."

"So I shouldn't trust her?"

"Just...don't expect too much from her. You'll be disappointed. Accept that she is who and what she is, with everything that entails. Within her limitations, she'll do her best for you and Rangeman in this."

Stephanie looked at Lester and blushed. She took the phone into the living room away from him to whisper to Ranger, "I know she doesn't mean to but I feel like a cat in heat that just wants to wave my pussy in front of the nearest cock so I can be filled and stop wanting so badly." She didn't realize that Lester could still hear both sides of the conversation, even at that distance.

"The pheromones aren't so bad if you don't fight them so hard," Ranger advised. "Enjoy them." Lester grinned. It had been permission.

"I can't do that!" Stephanie protested.

"Aren't there any of the men that you feel comfortable enough with to maybe take the edge off? Zip or Lester?" Ranger suggested. He had already been filled in on her activities over the time he was gone and who she was closest with. "Or there's always the shower massager. You can kick her out of the apartment if you're not comfortable with her."

"It's probably better for her to be up here with me than terrorizing the guys on four," Stephanie replied, resigned to unfulfilled horniness.

"She's going to be all over the building now. No more hiding for her. We need her talent and experience to find obscure connections between people. It will help us find Kenneth faster if she assists. And we need to find this guy. The rangemen will just have to cope. They're big boys and know how to handle their hormones. If you have trouble with any of them. Tank will sort them out."

"They wouldn't..." Stephanie protested.

"They had better not," Lester growled from the kitchen. Ranger chuckled and then cringed. That still hurt.

"Lester will take care of you, Babe. I gotta go."

"Goodnight Ranger."

"Love you, Babe." Click.

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_*There's another 'almost quote' in the above section. In the original book, not by JE, it said, "He's a demon..." *_

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**Lester POV**

Stephanie had been working all day on her laptop, sitting at the small conference table in my office or lounging on the couch. Her conversation with Ranger last night had made her a little too nervous to stay in her cubical on the floor. Fear of Ranger would probably have kept them from sniffing around her but she was wary of them and I loved the sweet torture of having her in here with me.

Frost had been in and out all afternoon. Talking to Stephanie and leaning over her to see the things she was finding, giving her doses of pain medication and encouraging her to eat. Then she'd come behind my desk to have a look at what I was digging up. I would have tossed her out and locked the door but Ranger had been really clear yesterday about letting her see everything and she did have good suggestions. The problem was that she was too interested in our progress and finding Stephanie's stalker. She cared about it. And while the pheromones she was kicking out were just the mid-level ones that made everything seem sexual and kept everyone primed without starting a massive orgy, they still were making me crazy. By four, I decided it was time to quit for the day. I had had enough and couldn't believe Stephanie had kept working through the whole day, despite the discomfort she must have been in from the stitches in her stomach.

"Ready to go?" I asked her, standing beside the table.

"This last search still needs to run," she replied absently. Then she looked up and her eyes focused on my crotch. My damn cock had been at half mast but it jumped to attention immediately.

"It seems to me that this 'eternal hard on' is a real problem for the guys."

I shrugged, wondering what was going through her pheromone and hormone addled head. "It happens around vampires. You get used to it."

"Are you sure it's just Frost's fault?"

"We're all horny guys, beautiful but most of us are past the stage where we used to beat off multiple times a day. Now, most of us are and it's not doing much good as long as we constantly have to breathe the pheromones. I've been stuck in here with you all day. No privacy to take the edge off."

"Perhaps you should show me what you're doing to relieve it," she suggested, licking her lips.

Well, that's all I needed: a challenge. I have a thing about people watching me jerk off, it's a huge turn on. I grabbed my throbbing cock suggestively through my pants. It had Stephanie worked up already. She wasn't immune to the pheromones all over the office either. It was just less obvious on her than the rest of us. She was wiggling a little on the desk, rubbing her thighs together and licking her lips seductively.

I unhooked my belt and pulled my cargo pants down freeing my hard uncut cock, and let her get a good look before I wrapped my hand around it and started working it slowly. She seemed transfixed. She yanked her shirt off. Her nipples were rock hard and her bra wasn't doing much to hide her from my view. Her cleavage is amazing for a woman with small breasts. The cups of her bra were overflowing and damn was I turned on. And that was only the beginning. She kicked her boots off and slid her pants down and there she was, sitting on my desk, rubbing her pussy through the material of her little thong panty and playing with her bra covered tits.

I had sat down in my chair, and began rubbing my throbbing cock nice and slow. Working my finger over the swollen head, rubbing the precum all over. Swirling it around the head, rubbing it all along the length of my cock, and sliding my hand slowly up and down. I played with my balls a little, and slid my hand around and up and down the shaft of my now rock hard cock.

The bra was gone, and there I was staring at a gorgeous pair of small tits with one hand pulling them, rolling her fingers around the stiff nipples, tugging them gently, licking her fingers and rubbing them against both tits while the other hand was in her panties, rubbing her pussy.

It didn't take long... I was breathing heavy, Stephanie was really going at it, and cum came flying out of my cock like water out of a fire hose. The first shot went flying and landed on the desk and Stephanie let out a low moan as she started really grinding against her hand and came right with me. My cock kept pulsing and cum was flying everywhere. All over me, the chair, the desk, barely missing Stephanie's laptop as it beeped to announce that it had completed the search.

She got her pants and shirt pulled back on and reached for the laptop. She studied the screen for a moment and then worked for a few moments. She had an intent look on her face. "Got him," she announced finally, looking up at me as if nothing had just happened. Maybe she was pretending it hadn't. She turned the laptop screen so I could see. I found an LLC that he is a partner in. The LLC owns a corporation that owns several apartment buildings. One of those apartments has been showing in their records as under renovations as a reason for not being rented but it's been like that for 16 months, the length of time Kenneth has been in Trenton."

"How did you get in the corporation records, Beautiful?"

"Hector taught me to use a few programs. Simple stuff. It was right there to be found."

Uh-huh. I wondered if Ranger knew that Hector was teaching Stephanie to break into computer systems in her searches. I called Tank, asking him and Frost to come see what she had found. Tank took a deep breath when he entered the room. I knew he was smelling not just the pheromone laced air or the perfume of Stephanie's arousal but also that we had both reached completion, at least once. I had cleaned up the desk and lit a few more candles but it wasn't enough to hide it from big cat senses. He didn't say anything that might have embarrassed Stephanie. Just frowned at me the tiniest bit and then read her computer screen and listened to her explain what she had found. He and Frost both seemed impressed. Frost murmured something low to Tank about healer blood.

Hector went with a team to check out the apartment. A light walk through found no hints of where he was now and the apartment appeared to be abandoned. We put a surveillance shift on it, reinforcing the order not to engage him if he were seen - shoot first and call for backup. Stephanie went upstairs with Frost. I worried about that but there was nothing I could do. Ranger said it was her choice and he trusted Frost.

* * *

**At the Cabin**

Ranger paced on his aching foot as he talked to Tank on the phone late that night. He was using the time it took him to get updated on the apartment Stephanie had found and the search and the progress of the hunt for Kenneth to help him build up the muscle tone again in his new foot. His stride was still awkward instead of fluid but eventually it would be back to normal. The question nagged at him. What would Rangeman Trenton do if they found Kenneth? Killing him would be the simplest thing for them but Ranger wanted to play with him for a bit first. Make him hurt as a lesson to any others of his kind that thought Stephanie might be easy prey.

Bobby had made a few phone calls earlier while Ranger was napping and was assured that Kenneth's clan had passed judgement already after Kenneth's failure to stay out of the mortal justice system. Secrecy was key and scions who ended up in jail were frequently deemed too stupid to live. Bad genes couldn't be allowed to continue to reproduce. Homicidal maniacs too smart to get caught were tolerated by their society. Dumb criminals were not. Kenneth was in the dumb criminal category. With clan protection withdrawn, anyone like Ranger with a bone to pick could torture or kill him without repercussions.

Ranger was frustrated by the slow healing process. He knew Tank was doing everything he possibly could. He knew Frost was helping and felt only a twinge of jealousy that Lester was helping Stephanie to cope with Frost. They had been taught that sexual possessiveness was based in insecurity and Ranger was not insecure usually. Those customs were based on trying to keep the gene pool strong despite their limited numbers. If he was absolutely sure that Stephanie loved him and would always come back to him, physical dalliances would mean nothing. He wasn't completely sure that she could accept him and love him despite what he was, so he was a bit jealous of Lester but he refused to show it by word or deed. Admitting that vulnerability would not be acceptable.

He held the phone with his right hand and tried, absentmindedly to brush the hair off of his forehead with his left. Nothing happened and he looked at the place where his left arm and hand should have been with irritation. He knew that the arm had been pretty well toasted by the blast before the building had caved in on him. He knew ditching the arm had been the only quick, safe, and effective way to leave the building. He was still annoyed by the regrowth process and hated the constant pain level as it healed. It had leveled off now though to a point where he could function through it most of the time though. Just a few more days, he promised himself. Then he was getting out of here. Snakes didn't need hands.

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**Thank you, again, to Zeveray for the vanilla smut. We've worked together multiple times and we try to have smooth transitions. Where do you think they were? Basketcse saw the google doc in progress so no fair for her to give it away. :-)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Warning:** this chapter contains smut. There's actual plot stuff too though. :-)

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_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

* * *

**Stephanie POV**

I showered, lit the candles around the apartment, and picked at the late dinner Ella had left for me to reheat. It was a little after seven thirty so I should have been starving. I was mostly just frustrated that the only lead I had managed to find was a dead end so far and feeling guilty about my little interlude with Lester.

"You usually eat more heartily," Frost commented, joining me at the counter. Huh? She must have noticed my confusion because she added, "Is something wrong?"

"It's your fault," I accused her.

"What's my fault?"

"You coming in Lester's office with those pheromones. I didn't have sex with him. Well, there was no touching but we did stuff. And it's your fault and Ranger is going to be pissed."

"Whoa. You and Lester were horny and did something that was consensual and now you want to blame me?"

"Without the pheromones, we never would have..."

"That's not what I've seen," she replied. "Everyone in this building talks about you and Lester dancing around each other. It's been happening for months."

"I may have wanted it but I wouldn't have done it. It was wrong."

"The pheromones just ramp up your hormones. They make you horny. Even under the strongest level, people sometimes fight through them. You could have chosen not to."

"I didn't want to fight it," I admitted.

"It's the perfect excuse and it's true that your inhibitions are a bit lowered. Don't blame me though just because you feel unnecessary guilt."

"What will Ranger say?" My voice was very small. Yes, I had wanted to tease Lester a little and it had gone beyond where I planned and I had enjoyed it. It wasn't something good girls did. And despite the very hot thing Lester and I had done without any physical contact, I wanted Ranger here with me now. It was completely not like me to have emotionless sex. I liked Lester, cared about him as a friend and it had been a brief intimate moment, but I didn't love him. Why hadn't I stopped myself?

Frost shrugged and pointed to my cell phone. "You don't need to wonder and torture yourself. I'm going to go out for a bit, okay?" I nodded and she disappeared briefly into the bedroom. She returned wearing clubwear, grabbed a set of keys from the dish by the door, and was gone.

I called Ranger who sounded a lot more like himself when he answered the phone. I didn't know what to say at first but the distance between us and him not being able to see my face gave me courage. I told him about what had happened between me and Lester briefly. He drew out the details, making me describe exactly what I had done and how I had felt. I heard a quiet groan on the other end of the line.

"Ranger?" I asked.

"Babe," he replied. I waited for his verdict, expecting disappointment in my lack of control or anger or something. As I thought about him having those reactions, I started to get angry. He had said it was okay. So I was completely thrown off guard when he said, "I'm never letting you pretend to be a good girl again. I like naughty Stephanie. And I want to act out the same scene with you in my office when I get back." I didn't know how to respond to that but I finally managed to squeak out an agreement. Then I glanced at the time and told him that I was going to crawl into bed.

"That's just mean," he told me.

"Why?" I asked.

"You get me all worked up, hard as a rock, picturing you getting off, right there in the office without even locking the door and letting someone watch. And now I have to think of you crawling into my bed. Tease. I wish I were there, Babe. Frost still staying there too?"

"She has been coming in after I go to sleep and crawling into bed with me," I told him. I couldn't decide if it bothered me but I wasn't awake at the time so if anyone asked, I could say it wasn't my fault or my choice and I could live with that.

"If sharing with her makes you uncomfortable, they can shuffle around down on four. I don't want you to be uncomfortable in my apartment."

"Okay," I told him. We said our goodnights.

Unlike previous nights, the sound of Frost showering and moving around the room woke me up. She lifted the covers and crawled in right next to me, cuddling up closer than usual. "You smell amazing," she told me. "It's a good thing I'm full."

"Uh...Frost?"

"I won't bite," she assured me. "You can enjoy the smell of freshly baked cookies without having one right then, right?" Well, I usually couldn't do that but I knew there were some disciplined people that could. I wondered why I suddenly smelled better than usual. She hadn't done this before. A glance at the clock confirmed that it was nearly dawn and I preferred not to see this time of day so I pressed my face into the pillow, tried to ignore how good the weight of her arm over me, the press of her breasts against my back, and the tickle of her breath on my neck felt, and went back to sleep. We could argue about this tomorrow. She needed to move downstairs. I was straight and this was just weird.

When I woke up that morning, I discovered that my period had arrived. My rangeman black panties were soaked and there was blood on my thighs. I wondered if that was what Frost had smelled last night and had to work hard not to freak out in the bathroom. I showered and used one of the thin, super absorbent pads I had brought from home. In a few days I'd switch to tampons but the first day of my cycle was always too heavy for that. I found some midol for the cramps that Ella must have bought for me. Ella was a saint. I was sitting on the bed, putting on my boots when Frost woke up. She shifted in the bed, curling up around my back with her head on my upper thigh, inhaling deeply. That was just creepy and odd. I pushed at her shoulder and she moved away, slowly, a distant dreamy look in her eyes but then she rose up to her knees to lean into my back. I felt her breath on my neck, then her lips. I tried to pull away but her arms pinned mine to my sides and I didn't have the leverage to stand. Her teeth grazed my skin and her scent surrounded me. For a brief moment, god help me, I wanted her to do it. That thought horrified me, gave me the strength to resist.

"No," I told her finally in a shaky voice. "You agreed. No biting."

She grumbled but released me. Her eyes were squeezed closed. "Go quickly," she advised.

I fled downstairs to Lester's office without breakfast. He caught me in his arms, asked me what was wrong. I wouldn't tell him. He had warned me about the dangers of trying to live with a vampire and I hadn't believed him. "Can I work in here again today?" I asked instead. He agreed and got me set up. I started another careful look at the corporation records, trying to find another possible bolt hole that Kenneth might be found in.

I was in the break room grabbing a bottle of water just before lunchtime when Frost came in. One assessing glance took in that it was only me, Zip, and Cal in the room. She eyed the open doorway for a moment, looking as calm and collected and harmlessly human as usual. Then she invited me to go out with her to lunch so we could discuss some things.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," I told her, not bothering to keep my voice down or keep the hostility out of it.

"Stephanie..." she started in a placating tone but I was having none of it. I had been really scared and now I was pissed.

"Don't 'Stephanie' me. You tried to bite me!" She approached me, likely trying to keep our discussion quieter but I dodged around her towards the door.

"I stopped," she protested. "And there are ways to make you less tempting."

Zip growled at her and he sounded more like an actual dog than a human imitating the sound. "Leave Stephanie alone," he told Frost.

"I'm in control now," she replied. "Please Stephanie. We can fix this so I don't want to eat you, help me resist."

"I have my period," I said. "I can't help it or stop it."

"And she can't leave the building without Lester or Hector," Cal added reasonably.

"Upstairs then," Frost said. There was something about her features and her eyes. She was so sad. I felt like I was angry at someone for just being themselves and I hated when people got mad at me for just being me. Ranger had warned me not to try to hold her to human standards.

Finally, I nodded and let her lead me to the elevator. "If I'm not back in an hour, will you send Lester up?" I asked Zip. He nodded agreement to my request.

As soon as we were in Ranger's apartment, Frost handed me a white and purple box labeled, 'Instead Menstrual Cups'.

"First, please switch to one of these and shower," she advised. "They hold the blood inside so I won't have to be tempted by the scent."

I opened the box, pulled out one of the individually wrapped items, and opened the purple wrapper. There was a large pink ring with some flimsy looking clear plastic in the center. "My period is too heavy the first day for tampons. I've tried. I've never seen anything like this before. It looks too big."

Frost shrugged. "It's lighter and more flexible than a diaphragm and many women used those for birth control for many years. Just pinch the sides together and insert. The ring rests around your cervix and the center will catch the blood flow. Most people can wear them for twice as long as they could wear a tampon. Up to 12 hours and much less risk of toxic shock syndrome."

"I don't know," I said, hesitating.

"As a bonus, you can have sex while you're wearing it and your partner will barely notice it. No mess from your period but because it doesn't absorb, you still have plenty of your natural lubrication. And no blood for me to smell." I could see from the tilt of her head and the flare of her nostrils that she could smell me now, and that was just creepy and weird. I mean, it made sense that a vampire would be attuned to blood scent but this was just a terrible time to get my period. I took the box into the bathroom with me and after some fumbling, managed to get it inserted and seated around my cervix. I could feel it with my fingers but not feel it inside. Much better than a tampon.

When I emerged, showered and in fresh clothing, lunch for me was waiting on the coffee table in the living room. I sat cautiously at the other end of the couch from Frost and ate. She flipped channels idly, waiting for me to finish. Then she said, "It's much better now. You smell like you again and not a treat I can't eat."

"I think you should move down to the fourth floor anyway," I told her. "What if it leaks overnight or something?"

"You're scared of me now," she observed.

"Well, you almost bit me."

"But I didn't" she protested. "And even if I had, you would have been fine. You wouldn't even miss the little I would have taken."

"You're supposed to be in control of yourself," I replied.

"I was," she insisted.

"And, well, I'm not really comfortable with sleeping with you," I continued. "We've just been too close, physically and it's weird for me."

"It's probably for the best for me to move down there now so they can get used to me. Probably Ranger will be back soon anyway." Frost said. "I'll have Tank arrange it." I could see that she was feeling a little hurt but I was glad that I'd get Ranger's apartment back as my own space. She continued, "So, are we good then?"

I fixed my attention on stacking my lunch dishes and silverware onto a neat pile. "It worries me that I was so tempting to you that you didn't want to pull back."

"I did pull back though," Frost reminded me again. "Haven't you ever wanted something really badly and still said 'no'? Been on a diet or lusted after a man that's off limits?" I had, yes. Even the thing, whatever it was, with Lester might fall under that category but I wasn't ever very good at resisting. I just went with it usually, shattered diets, masturbated as a show for Lester. If she did that, I would get bitten. "When you really want to say 'no' you're stronger than you think you are," she assured me. "I know you're off limits and I can resist."

"I kinda wanted you to bite me," I admitted. "That was the scariest part."

Her mouth quirked up in an almost smile. "A bite is a very sexual and sensual experience and you say you're straight. You won't give consent and I won't bite without it. Here, a demonstration." I was wary, given her previous demonstration in the gym but she just sat on the couch, motionless. I watched emotions cross her face as she focused her thoughts on something, dug deep to really feel a memory. The scent of her pheromones intensified. I sniffed them. She continued to remember, whatever she was remembering. The scent swirled around me, filled the room. She was beautiful. Delicate and desirable with a core of strength that had helped her endure a very long and lonely life. I slid across the couch to be closer to her. Kissed her lightly and then more deeply and she let me do it though I could tell she was still in the memory, not really with me. It was only for a moment but it felt amazing. I wondered if I was really straight after all and then couldn't believe myself that I was even considering that. I pulled back abruptly, knowing I had to get out of there before I did something with her that I'd regret later. Lester would be safe.

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**Lester POV**

Stephanie came back into my office after lunch, looking a little dazed which was an improvement over the fear from this morning. Her eyes watched me more than her computer screen.

"Was there a problem with Frost?" I asked. She stared at me for a long moment.

"I kissed her," Stephanie admitted.

"And?" I prompted.

"I couldn't stop myself. I'm not into women but she just smelled so good and I kissed her."

"And?"

"She just yielded. It was like it was nothing to her. If I hadn't stopped myself, pulled back. I don't know what would have happened."

"You stopped yourself though," I reassured her, hoping I was reading her correctly. "You're stronger than a lot of people and you got control back." I took her in my arms for a hug and realized immediately that it was a mistake. She was soaked in pheromones from being so close to Frost. My cock hardened quickly, painfully. I tried to ignore it but Stephanie had to have felt it against her. She didn't object at all. She ran her hands under my shirt, exploring my skin.

"You need to get in the shower," I told her.

"No," she replied, rubbing against me. "I need to have your cock inside of me."

She pulled my shirt off of me and then kicked off her boots, quickly following that with removing her shirt and letting her pants slide down her legs so she could step out of them, revealing a tiny black thong. I gritted my teeth together, tried to find some sort of control. This would be wrong. The intoxicating scent of Frost lessened a bit with her clothes on the floor and I fed power to the candle flames, letting them flare up and melt more scented wax.

It wasn't enough. I picked her up, leaned her back on my desk, started at her neck and slowly kissed my way down to her tits, which I sucked on, ran my tongue around and generally enjoyed before making my way down.

"Tell me 'no'," I begged her, knowing her refusal was the only thing that would stop me now.

She pressed herself against me, nibbled at my neck. "Yes," she said.

"You're going to hate me when you come out of this," I told her.

"I'll hate you if you don't help me," she replied.

Stephanie's thong was soaked. I decided to tease her a little. I began to kiss her thighs, working my way towards her panty covered pussy, which I rubbed my palm over eliciting a little moan from Stephanie's lips. She obviously wanted more attention paid to her wet pussy. I was going to get there, just not until I was ready! I pulled the panty away from her, ran my finger along her pussy, stopped at her clit and gave it a little massage with my thumb before running my tongue from her ass to her clit, stopping with a nice gentle suck of her button. Then I let the panty fall back into place. I knew from the very public contretemps between Stephanie and Frost this morning that she had started her cycle but there was no hint of blood.

I stepped back, and looked at her. Her eyes opened and she was almost angry that I had moved away. She thought I was going to leave her hanging. Of course I had no intention of doing that, but what the hell... a man has to exert some power over women. I grinned, moved back toward her, and pulled the panty slowly off her.

I've never seen a more gorgeous pussy than Stephanie's. This woman is clean shaven, tight, juicy, the perfect pussy if there ever was one. I sat down in the chair, my cock still throbbing, and put her legs over my shoulders while I went in to get a good taste of that juicy wet pussy. I started by nibbling very gently on her extended clit. I sucked it gently into my mouth and assaulted it with my tongue while I rubbed the lips of her wet pussy. I had my hand palm down, my fingers rubbing over her pussy while I was sucking on her clit. Rubbing up and down slowly with very little pressure. On one of the passes a finger slipped right into her and she started grinding on it. Just what I liked, a greedy pussy. Damn it was tight, wet and mine until Ranger got back. I kept sucking on her clit, fingering her pussy, careful not to dislodge whatever she had in there to stop her menstrual flow, and generally bringing her to the edge of a mind blowing orgasm. Every time I thought she was going to cum I'd stop though. I wanted to feel her pussy spasm, but I didn't want to waste it on my fingers or tongue. That pussy was going to squeeze and cum, and it was going to be on my cock.

Finally, after a while of teasing her with my fingers and tongue, I moved back, stood up, kept her legs propped up against me, and began teasing her with my cock. I was rubbing it all along her pussy, banging it gently against her clit, and letting the head slip between her pussy lips and inside a little before pulling it back out and dripping her juices and my precum all over her. She was so wet. Her pussy was dripping, her ass was wet from the constant flow of our mixed juices and she was literally begging for me to fuck her.

I grabbed her hips, and slid my cock all the way into her tight wet hole with one motion. All the way up to my balls in the tightest non-virgin pussy I've ever had. My balls rested against her nicely and her pussy was spasming on me just from the stimulation of a thick throbbing cock twitching and grinding against it. She began to really buck her hips, trying to get me to do more than stay buried deep in her pussy without moving. Stephanie wanted me to fuck her and I allowed myself to believe for just a moment that it was more than just the pheromones!

I started slowly, holding her down as best I could. I wanted to really make her wild so I didn't want her controlling the tempo. I kept light pressure on her hips and began sliding all the way out, then all the way back in her tight pussy. The only thing that stayed inside her clenching pussy was the head of my cock which was so swollen at this point that I'm not sure it could have come out even if I wanted it to. Nice slow strokes, all the way in, a twitch and all the way out. I took her hands, put one of them against her clit so I could watch her rub it, and wrapped the other around my cock. There's no feeling in the world like fucking a woman and feeling her hand wrapped around you while you slip in and out. She was going wild! I wasn't giving in though. I continued the slow fuck that I knew would make her crazy.

Gradually I picked up the pace, and let her go a little wild. Let her move her hips in time to my quickening thrusts. Each time I pushed my fat cock into her tight little pussy she pushed up at me, wiggled, and tightened the muscles in her pussy. It was quite a ride, I have to say.

Before long, she was screaming out that she was going to cum, and I wasn't far from it myself. I felt the familiar tingling at the base of my cock and knew I was going to erupt in this tight pussy. Then it happened. Her pussy gripped my cock like no pussy ever had before (or since!) and she moaned out. The one hand continued to rub her clit in circles while I humped her and the other hand went straight to her little tits and began pulling and twisting them.

This was all it took. I plowed my thick cock into her steamy, spasming hole and came so hard I thought I was going to fall over! Our combined cum was dripping out of her pussy around my cock, and I just kept slipping in and out of her while we both came down from our intense orgasms. After a minute or two, I pulled out of her, stood back, and watched her pull her panties on, and try to put herself back together. I wished these little breaks would be able to continue once Ranger got back but his mama never did teach him to share properly. He may have encouraged this while he was gone but I doubted he'd tolerate it while he was here.

Before she was the whole way dressed, Tank burst into the room. "We need you. Woody was monitoring the emergency lines and heard that Stephanie's building is on fire."

"I'm going," Stephanie announced. She wore a just fucked look and was already eying Tank and I hungrily again.

"No you're not," Tank and I replied in unison as I finished lacing my boots.

"You need to shower, like now, before the other guys get a whiff of you or you do something you'll regret," I added. Then I left Tank to handle her and raced to meet Hector in the garage, hoping for a chance to catch Kenneth still controlling the fire but if not, we might at least be able to save other residents or protect nearby buildings.

* * *

**At the Cabin**

"He's escalating," Ranger growled at Bobby after receiving a call from Tank about the fire at Stephanie's apartment building.

"Hector and Lester will just have to handle it," Bobby replied calmly, looking pointedly at Ranger's arm that was currently still in progress.

"Even the two of them working together couldn't dampen the blaze when Kenny had a hold on it. They barely managed to save the residents and Hector actually got burnt. He could go after Haywood next."

"You can't go back to Trenton and explain an arm growing back," Bobby replied flatly. "There are too many people who would see and ask questions. We can keep cutting it off for a little while but eventually you'd have to leave and finish healing. Relocate permanently with a new identity."

Ranger glared at the arm in question, then shrugged. "Snakes don't have arms and I can control fire no matter what form I'm in. You'll just have to have a new pet."

"Alright," Bobby agreed. "What do you want me to tell Bombshell about why I left you somewhere healing unprotected? If you're well enough to be alone, why aren't you well enough to go there and give her support?"

Ranger slammed his fist into the wall. "Fine. We'll disguise the arm. Make it seem like it's still there. Bandages or something and a sling. Figure it out." He looked around the cabin. "There's nothing here we need. Let's go. Now." Bobby hurried out of the single room cabin and turned to watch Ranger's exit. The small structure burst into flames at multiple places, the flames an eerie pale blue color. Ranger's control of the fire was so absolute that there was no smoke to alert any distant authorities, no sparks to endanger the forest. It had been built as a dragon recovery house, built to be a fast burn for even a low level dragon. For Ranger, it was as easy as a pile of dry tinder. He came striding out of the building just before the roof collapsed. Flames flickered over his clothing and he allowed them to be consumed, revealing unharmed caramel skin. Then a large olive colored snake lay on the ground where the man had stood. He raised up the front 3 feet of his body, hissed at Bobby, revealing that the interior of his mouth was black, and started towards the man.

"Black Mambas aren't native to this country," Bobby reminded him mildly. The snake closed to striking distance and swayed, hissing another threat. Even a scion's healing couldn't save him from such deadly venom if the snake struck. Bobby was 99.9% sure that Ranger wouldn't hurt him fatally like that but the remaining tenth of a percent pushed him to caution. "But they are wicked fast for a snake. Good choice." The last of the fire flickered out. Another tongue of flame sprang to life and licked at Bobby's pants. He protested and quickly stripped out of his clothing. Shifting into his eagle form as smoothly as Ranger had become a snake, Bobby flew towards where the jeep was supposed to have been parked. Ranger's path over the forest floor was swift and in the same direction.

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_**A/N** - The last M/M smut scene from chapter 6 was Woody and Hal. Zero moved into Zip's efficiency on four to let Frost stay in his own efficiency this chapter. More gratuitous M/M smut, this time from Zip's POV, is available._

_If you got the M/M smut from 6 AND commented on 7 (so you commented on 6 **and** 7 and emailed me for the chapter 6 bonus scene to indicate that you like M/M smut), you should have an email already with the chapter 8 bonus smut._

**_If you didn't get it and want the 4600 word bonus smut scene:_**

_1)** Comment here** on this chapter (anonymous is fine)_

_2) Email me a copy of your comment (or your screen name) to **thespiritforged at gmail dot com**_

_3) I will send you the M/M graphic sex scene that occurs the night of this chapter.  
_

_Yes, like last time, I am keeping track of the comments and the requests. If you don't like M/M stuff, you won't be missing anything._


	9. Chapter 9

**This is slightly shorter than intended but someone asked for an update so I'm giving you what I have.**

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_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

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Stephanie POV

I was standing in the control room arguing with Tank about whether a trip to the Tasty Pastry was a necessary risk when the garage monitor went dark. Vince looked up at Tank with one eyebrow raised, his hand poised over the alarm button. Tank shook his head firmly. "It's expected," he told us.

"Ranger?" I asked. Tank put an arm around me. I couldn't tell if it was meant to be a comfort or a restraint. I could feel the strength in that arm and there was no way I could go anywhere until he released me from that casual looking hold. He led me to his office and closed the door behind him.

"It's Ranger," he confirmed, still not letting me go. "Let Bobby help him get settled and then they'll call when he's ready to see you. He's still injured and it's not pretty."

"I don't care if it's not pretty. I want to see him."

"And you will," Tank tried to reassure me. "Just give him a little time."

There was a brief knock on the door and then Frost breezed in. "Ranger's asking for you to report while Bobby..." She trailed off, eyed me, and looked briefly unsure before finishing with, "While Bobby changes his bandages." She had a terrible blank face. I knew there was something else she had wanted to say instead but didn't.

"Please wait here, Stephanie," Tank requested. "I'll send Zip to keep you company and when you can go up to seven, I'll call, okay?"

I could see the effort it took him to make it sound like a soft request rather than an order. He was used to ordering but with Frost especially, he worked to make things requests. I'd seen her balk on principle alone when he gave her orders. It seemed that he was now trying requests on me and as much as I disliked this one, I was willing to cooperate. "Can you stay with me?" I asked Frost.

The scent around her was briefly stronger, as if I had asked a sensitive question, before she reined her emotions back in and got it under control. "It's better if I observe what Bobby is doing for Ranger in case I need to duplicate it sometime when Bobby is not available."

Tank released me and approached her cautiously. She turned abruptly and left. "I'll wait for Zip," I assured Tank. "I still have free range of the building except seven, right?"

"Sure Steph."

I paced a bit, poked in Tank's desk drawers, and was examining the bookshelf when Zip entered the office. He followed my path in the room, crossing the room where I had paced, touching the drawers I had opened, and ended standing beside me. He had done it for the first time months ago, the first time he came to my apartment.

_I had been having a rough night with nightmares again, mostly about what Ranger might be doing. I had called Lester but he was on a stakeout. He said he'd sends someone to keep me occupied until I was too tired to have nightmares. When the locks on my door had tumbled open, I tensed, my hand on the gun I had retrieved from the cookie jar to be my security blanket. The door opened but no one entered._

_"Steph?" an only vaguely familiar voice called. "It's Zip. Is it okay to come in?"_

_"No one else asks," I told him._

_A slightly familiar face peeked around the door frame. "It's your territory."_

_"Sure, come in." We had joked a bit about him being a vampire to need such a formal invitation. Now I knew he wasn't a vampire so I wondered what else might need an invitation. He closed and locked the door behind himself, then followed the exact places I had been pacing in the living room, touched the freezer door, the cookie jar, and the silverware drawer in the kitchen, poked his head in my bedroom and took a deep breath as if scenting something._

_"So, nightmares, huh?" he prompted me._

_"I don't want to talk about them." Lester had drilled that phrase into me. If I didn't want to talk, fine. If I wanted to pretend with the people from the Burg and my parents, okay. But he always knew when I lied, even a little and it pissed him off. It was better to just tell him to butt out. The flipside of that was that the person had to respect that I really didn't want to talk. My mother would have pried because she couldn't take not knowing. My sister would have wheedled until I caved, certain that I really did want to talk once I was sure she wanted to hear. The Rangemen didn't. Maybe it was a guy thing. If I said clearly that I didn't want to talk, they didn't push. Zip studied me on the couch for a moment and then held out his hand, a clear request for the gun I was still holding. I handed it to him and as he checked to see whether it was loaded and then plopped down on the floor to break it down and clean it, I asked him, "So how did you do that?"_

_"Do what?" he asked, glancing at the gun as if wondering whether I wanted him to explain how to take it apart and clean it properly._

_"Know exactly where I've been in the apartment and what I've been doing. You did the security prowl like everyone does but you walked exactly where I had walked, touched everything I touched since I came out here. What's up with that?"_

_"Would you believe me if I told you scent?" he asked. His lips had quirked up in an almost smile. I had given him my best glare. I didn't appreciate the joking. "Training," he had replied finally. "Observation of small details that most people don't notice."_

Each time he repeated the trick over the following months, it was even eerier. He knew somehow exactly where I had stepped, exactly where I had touched most recently. He was never wrong and he never explained.

"You're going to have to explain sometime how you do that," I told him as he stood close enough for his shoulder to touch mine.

"Evil Sith tricks," he replied.

"Don't you mean Jedi?" I asked.

He laughed. "If you want Jedi, talk to Frost or Ranger. They do the emotion suppression shit. I'm more Sith, 'Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength.' and so on."

"You're avoiding the question again."

"It worked so well last time you asked."

"Yeah, but now I know more. You don't smell like Frost but I'm beginning to wonder if you're freaky too."

He met my eyes, blank face firmly in place. In a neutral voice, he asked, "What if I was freaky? Would you stop coming over for movie night? Hate me for being a monster?"

"Have I reacted that way to Frost?" I replied carefully. I could feel how very important that question was to him and I knew from that alone that he may not be a vampire but he was definitely something. "You're still you. Any freakiness is just a part of you. I know you and learned to trust you already. That won't change."

His face and eyes remained neutral and I wasn't sure if I had gotten through to him. Some days, he reminded me of a wild animal, like there wasn't anything human home to understand me. He bumped my shoulder with his arm and started forward. I fell into step with him, curious about where we were going but squelching the verbal questions. Zip liked words about as much as Tank. Actions spoke more loudly. And if I really trusted him, I could follow him anywhere in this building without worry. He wouldn't risk me by taking me out of Haywood.

We went down one set of stairs and into his apartment. It was unusually neat and fresh smelling, as if Ella had given the room it's weekly cleaning just hours ago. As soon as the door was closed behind him, he started to strip. I had seen this show before too. It was like as soon as he got home, he couldn't stand to continue wearing the Rangeman uniform. Usually, he stepped into the bathroom by the end and returned wearing a pair of basketball shorts. Today, he stripped down to his skin and stood looking into my eyes, his own eyes filled with challenge. I don't know what he saw in my eyes but it must have pleased him because he nodded.

His gaze changed, seemed to stare through me rather than into my eyes. Then he dissolved into mist and before I could react, there was a large dog standing in the apartment. It looked like a large crossbreed, maybe german shepherd and husky. Or maybe it was a slightly oversized wolf. What did I know? I had never seen a real wolf in person before.

"Zip?" I asked. Foolish. I had watched the change. The wolf licked its lips and glanced away from me. Then when I remained frozen in place, he lay down on the floor, his head pillowed on large front paws. He looked harmless.

"Can you change back? I have questions." The wolf huffed. It was almost a laugh. Of course I would have questions about this that a wolf couldn't answer. He swayed his head side to side in a 'no' gesture, a strange sight on a wolf body. "Then I guess I get to pick the movie while we wait for me to be able to see Ranger."

I accessed netflix from his game console and chose a movie that I knew he wouldn't have agreed to if he could have argued in words or used thumbs to take control of the remote. He jumped gracefully up onto the couch with me and circled once beside me before laying his head on my leg. I scratched behind his ears, just like I would have with Bob, and Zip closed his eyes in doggy bliss.

We were about halfway through the movie when the apartment door burst open. Zip was on his feet in a flash, leaping over me and the arm of the couch to stand between me and whoever. A low growl rumbled deep in his chest. Zero entered and seeing Zip the wolf, closed the door quickly behind him. "Hey man. It's just me. Chill," he told the wolf. Zip stopped growling but he stayed between me and the other man, like he didn't trust his cousin with me. I stood and put my hand on the wolf's shoulder. It was a comfortable way to stand. He was tall enough that I didn't have to reach down at all.

"Ranger is ready for you to go up," Zero told me.

"Can you pause the movie," I asked Zero as an afterthought as I went immediately to the door.

"xBox Pause," Zero ordered and the images on the screen stopped moving. Zip had followed me to the door and was waiting expectantly for me to open it. Zero reached into Zip's pants pocket, pulled out a remote, and offered it to me. "He can't be seen on camera," Zero explained so you'll have to scramble them as you go.

"When can he change back?" I asked Zero, since he seemed to be in the know.

Zero shrugged. "It really varies from person to person. I can muster the energy to change back in three or four hours, sometimes longer if I have to fight or am really active. He usually takes longer." Huh, so there was a range of strength, interesting. I would have to pester them with more questions later. Seeing Ranger was more important.

Ranger was sitting on the couch when we entered. Frost was sitting on the floor near him. Tank perched on the edge of the recliner. Bobby hovered over Ranger. "He's fine," Frost was telling Bobby impatiently. "You haven't been giving him enough pain killers."

"He's been having double the standard dose and you just gave him a whole third dose," Bobby protested.

Frost shrugged. "I'll keep tabs on it," she promised.

Tank looked at us first and saw Zip at my side. He choked on the water he was sipping. "Mats 0500," he told Zip.

"Babe?" Ranger asked in a groggy voice.

I came farther into the living room. Zip stayed velcroed to my side in a perfect but his tail was down, ears folded. He looked like a dog expecting a beating. Ranger's left arm and hand were wrapped in ace wrap, splinted, and in a sling across his chest. He probably couldn't use it at all. Ranger narrowed his eyes at Zip. "You know, I expected that the vampire would refuse to hide but you're a surprise." Zip waved his tail, a cautious tock-tock and looked hopeful.

"What do you think of this, Babe?" He gestured to Zip.

"It explained a lot actually," I replied. "How are you doing? Is it safe for you to be back here?

"It's safer for you for me to be back," Ranger replied.

"What about you?" I pressed. "You were hiding out to heal for a reason, right?"

"I'll be okay, Babe. No one will know I'm here." His words slurred at the end and his eyes drooped closed.

"He doesn't quite sound like himself," I told Bobby and Frost. "What did you guys give him?"

"Local injection plus some morphine," Bobby replied. It definitely looked like how I react to morphine, random naptime. Bobby was still looking at Ranger in concern though. He exchanged a look with Frost. She touched Ranger's wrist, like taking his pulse. Bobby frowned, clearly not satisfied. Frost turned Ranger's hand towards her, palm up and I saw a flash of her fangs before she inserted one of them delicately into his palm at the base of his thumb. She pulled back immediately, licked the single drop of blood that welled up, and closed her eyes, like a wine taster testing the vintage. Then she looked up at Bobby with slightly sleepy eyes. "Standard human saturation level. Like I said. You've been under-dosing him."

"He doesn't like to be this knocked out," Bobby replied.

"If we need him to, he can still wake up but he needs rest to heal best," Frost replied. "I'll take the heat if he's angry later."

"You babysit then. I'm going to go see what damage you've done to the medical suite." Bobby sounded pretty cranky but he had occasional cranky moments.

"You're welcome," Frost replied to his back, not seeming the least bit upset by his tone.

Tank had pretty much ignored their bickering. His attention remained on me and Zip as if we posed a particularly difficult problem. "Ranger's orders were not to involve her in shenanigans or reveal ourselves," Tank said finally. "There are rules. Your pack will want to neuter you for this little bit of stupidity."

"Telling me wasn't stupid!" I protested. "He's my friend."

"You seem to be handling it well and I know you're not gonna tell anyone and endanger him but, Steph, he had orders."

"He's just supposed to obey like he's really a dog?" I felt my jaw clench as I tried to defend Zip. He had the look of a dog that had been beaten and expected another beating. Tank was practically kicking a puppy with his reaction.

"Don't let those cute furry ears and paws fool you. He's still him in there. And he knows he messed up."

I wanted to yell at him but I didn't want to wake Ranger. Besides, yelling at Tank never had good results. I went over the conversation, looking for a rational response that would take this down to a more friendly level. Finally, it hit me. "You said, 'reveal ourselves' and that includes you. How many Rangemen are freaky Tank?"

"Not many," he said, blank face crashing into place.

"Eight including me," Frost replied. "Cal is not freaky but he's dating a healer. You should meet her. You remind me of her in some ways."

"Are you a wolf too?" I pressed Tank.

Tank looked uncomfortable for a moment. "This isn't really something I can discuss," he replied finally. "I will say that not everyone is as sweet and fluffy and harmless looking as your puppy there. And remember that he's not really any of those things. He's a predator."

Zip whined softly, almost too quiet for me to hear. "It's okay. I know you would never hurt me," I told him.

"I told you," Frost said. "She really accepts people as they are and doesn't fuss about their pasts or things they can't change. It's rare in a human but she has it."

Tank looked like he wanted to strangle Frost but he just got up and headed for the door. "I've got actual work to do. Call me if Ranger wakes back up and still wants me."

I sat on the floor with Frost, wanting to be near Ranger but not wanting to disturb him or hurt him if I jostled him trying to climb onto the couch. We channel surfed and petted Zip who soaked up the attention. It was so easy to forget that there was a person in there. I never would have petted him in human form. Frost reached up occasionally to check Ranger's pulse with her fingers on his right wrist. One of those times, he jerked his hand away from her and sat up. Guess the drugs had worn off.

He stared down at us, frowning and eyebrows drawn down in what I would have called puzzlement in anyone else. Then he lurched to his feet and retreated to the bedroom. Frost followed. I heard them arguing about local only vs more morphine. It sounded like Ranger got his way and only got a local.

He came back out alone, his usually graceful movements more cautious. His balance seemed to be affected by having his left arm in the tight sling across his chest. It appeared to be completely immobile. He sat heavily on the couch and sat beside him on his good side. He put his arm around me and pulled me close to him, like a halfway hug.

"You've had an eventful few days, Babe," Ranger said. "Are you okay?"

"Lester and Frost and everyone have been taking good care of me," I assured him. "I'm not the one with my arm in a sling. Maybe I should be asking if you're okay?"

"I'm fine, Babe. This will be healed in no time."

"Can I get you a drink or call Ella for some food or something?"

"There should be a meat and cheese plate in the refrigerator. Could you grab it?"

"Heavy for you," I commented when I had retrieved it for him and settled back next to him with the huge platter where we could both reach it. I couldn't begin to guess the amount of fat and calories on that tray.

"Protein is good for healing," Ranger replied. He nudged Zip with his bare toes. "What am I going to do with you?" he asked the wolf. "Go take a nap with Frost." The wolf went into the bedroom and nudged the door most of the way closed behind him, leaving only a small gap.

"We need to talk, Babe," Ranger said when we were alone but before he could continue his thought, fire alarms started to blare. As he grabbed his phone, I could have sworn I saw smoke curl out of one nostril.

"Report!" he barked into his cell. The paper in the shredder bin caught on fire and all of the candle flames blazed suddenly high. Frost and Zip rushed out of the bedroom. The alarms went quiet but flames licked at the outside of the apartment window. What was fire doing so far up here with nothing really to burn? The flames abruptly all extinguished. Ranger pulled me to the stairs and led me down. Frost and Zip followed us. The fast pace had me gasping for breath each time he paused on a landing, seeming to concentrate. I wondered if he was in pain. He usually didn't need breaks to go down the stairs. I coughed a bit from the smoke as we made our way down. After stopping on every floor, including the basements, we went to the main level and out onto the street into the vacant lot next door. We were immediately surrounded by a sea of black clad men.

"What the fuck happened?" Ranger barked at Lester and Hector as we came to a stop near them.

"I couldn't control it. It kept slipping past my grip," Lester responded at the same time Hector said, "Meet Stephanie's Arsonist."

"Where?" I said, looking around suspiciously. All I could see were heavily armed men and the fire trucks pulling up.

"He got away before we got out here, Beautiful," Lester admitted. "There were just so many fires to put out that I couldn't chase him."

"I have the license plate," a merry man I didn't know said from my left, holding out a piece of paper.

Tank had a meeting with a firemen, assuring them that the fire was out and it was just superficial damage. He managed to convince them to leave without ever entering the building. There was a lot of soft discussions among the merry men around me. Some about the quick out of nowhere fires starting and then going out. Some questioning my 'huge ass dog' getting in the building without anyone noticing. Some commenting on Ranger being back and how rare it was to see him back injured. I just stood and breathed Frost's scent, one hand on Zip's back. She stayed a nice steady calm, like a burning building was no reason to get upset. Zip had been right about her having Jedi skills. Eventually we were allowed back in the building.


	10. Chapter 10

_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

* * *

Once the firemen had packed up and headed home, everyone trooped into the building and bunched into the gym. It was standing room only and packed except where Ranger stood on the mats, in the only clear space. He looked beat up with his arm in the sling and he smelled like smoke. His blank face couldn't quite mask the pain he was in and it was clear the medications had worn off. He faced the gathered men.

"This information is to be treated as highly classified and is not to leave the building," Ranger announced in a voice that was loud enough to carry through the suddenly silent room. "Some of you have had previous experiences with people termed 'unmentionables' or who seemed to have unexplainable special abilities. Stephanie's current stalker has an unusual ability. He can start fires or control fires within his sensing range, that includes within the building and even out of sight. If you see Kenneth Drake, do not engage him. Shoot him from a distance with a tranquilizer and call for backup. His abilities are dangerous and he is not sane. Questions?"

The men looked at each other, shuffled their feet. Some of them weren't sure what to make of the information. A few wondered if his most recent mission had damaged him mentally, though the number of people who obviously believed him and their long history with him as their leader made them willing to keep listening. Others looked faintly sick or frightened behind the blank faces they slammed down to conceal those things. Less than a quarter merely nodded and looked resigned, those were the ones who had had dealings with the supernatural before, either unmentionable or the scions of the gods. There were more of that last group than Ranger had suspected. A few of the last group noticed that Zip was nowhere to be found and eyed the large dog standing next to Stephanie more suspiciously. The ones who weren't purely human all clustered together with Stephanie and the wolf to one side of the mats. They had known this information from the beginning.

One brave man spoke, "If some weird supernatural shit was starting the fires, how were they going out?"

Ranger offered an almost smile. "We have some people talented in weird supernatural shit on our side too. This building is and will remain a safe zone."

Another asked, "How do we know he's crazy?" Vince said, "'Cause he's stalking Bombshell," at the same time Ram said, "No one sane would try to attack her while she's in here." The room broke out in conversation until Tank gave a piercing whistle.

Ranger glared for a moment. Then replied, "The same thing that gives him control over fire also makes him more prone to go crazy and he's fixated on Stephanie. He believes he can take on anything and that her death will prove that he's normal. Anything else?"

The men exchanged glances but no one else spoke up. They had a lot to think about and a lot they wanted to discuss with each other but asking questions just for curiosity had been trained out of them. If they needed to know, their leader would have already told them. Ranger waited a long moment and then nodded. Tank dismissed them back to whatever they had been doing previous to the fires.

Ranger took Stephanie's hand as the gym cleared out. He frowned. His only hand was compromised by that but they were in a secure building and the largest threat at the moment was probably still fire. He kept her hand and led her towards the elevator. "I want a shower. Then we can talk over dinner, okay Babe?"

Zip started to follow them but Tank grabbed his scruff and held on firmly. Zip's ability to breath was briefly compromised as he struggled against the hold but eventually he subsided and Tank released him. Once Tank had looked around to assure himself that the rest of the men were gone, he told Zip, "If you're gonna walk around in fur, you need a collar at the very least. It will help them see you as a dog." He didn't think revealing the wolf's nature to Stephanie had been a good idea and it was certainly against their laws to do it. If Stephanie started talking, people would think she was crazy. For being the one to tell her, Zip would be hunted like a rabid dog and not killed nearly as quickly or as kindly as they'd kill Stephanie. He hoped Stephanie would resist contributing this bit of gossip to the burg grapevine. Tank liked the wolf and liked having him at his back. Big cats were more solitary creatures than canines usually but the human in him liked company that knew his secrets and could be trusted.

"Do you want to stay with me or go back to your apartment?" Tank asked Zip. Zip leaned his shoulder against Tank's leg. "Yeah, I figured. Come on." Wolves were not solitary and like many dogs, were prone to anxiety when alone.

Frost followed Ranger and Stephanie upstairs. She had noticed that the bandages over his fake arm needed rearranging and the pain he had been doing so well at masking. When she intruded into the apartment, Stephanie was cuddled into Ranger's good side, looking up at him adoringly. Ranger had been returning that look, maybe going to give her a bone melting kiss, but at Frost's entrance, he lifted his head to see the incoming threat. His eyes sparked briefly, nearly going fire-red before he controlled them. His voice was a little tight when he said, "Frost. We were just about to order dinner."

"Let me check your bandages and give you some more pain meds first," she replied.

"I'll call Ella," Stephanie volunteered.

Frost followed Ranger to the bedroom and peeled off the sling, bandages, and hard foam arm and hand. She flexed his elbow joint, checking the function of the muscles and tendons around it. Then she examined the stump end where the regrowth was happening. It was clearly irritated by the constant rubbing and past the point where in seclusion, they would have stopped using bandages entirely. Both bones seemed to be progressing nicely. She estimated that they were at mid-forearm. The skin and soft tissue regrowth was a bit beyond that. It grew faster than bone. Jaw clenched, Ranger submitted to her poking and probing.

"Knife?" Frost prompted Ranger finally. He pulled one and handed it to her.

"I'm gonna change clothes while you fix that thing. It's too long again."

"I noticed," Frost agreed. Ranger awkwardly undressed with one arm, used the bathroom and then changed to only a pair of sweatpants to lounge around the apartment with Stephanie. Frost shaved the foam away with the knife he had given her, cutting it shorter and then tapering the end so it would settle correctly against his arm. When he sat on the bed near her, presenting his left arm, she injected the stump in two places with a long acting local to numb it as much as possible. Then, she put on the forearm brace, tightening against the already formed part of his arm and the foam, trying to give him a little space in between and still keep the whole thing stable. Then she wrapped the whole hand and down the forearm towards his elbow and settled it in a less restrictive sling than the one he had used that morning.

"You need to move your shoulder, upper arm, and elbow as much as you can to make sure nothing fuses where it shouldn't," she explained the change. Then she plunged a needle into his upper arm.

"I hate that morphine shit," Ranger complained.

"You need it. You won't heal as well if you're fighting the pain too."

Ranger glared at her but Frost was unmoved by the implied threat. She just cleaned up the medical supplies and breezed out of the apartment.

Ella brought up a huge meal, much more than Ranger would normally eat and handed Ranger a small glass with some thick, chalky looking liquid. He gulped it like yucky medicine, knowing that the nutrient shake was the most efficient way to get more of the protein and calcium and trace minerals he needed to heal well.

Once Ella was gone they sat down at the dining table to eat, Ranger need to tell Stephanie about Kenneth. That it was also about himself was something he wasn't really looking forward to revealing. He procrastinated for a while by eating enthusiastically but eventually, he found a place to start. "The usual name for people who can do what Kenneth can do is dragon-scion. Myth is that they're descended from dragons who took human form and walked among humans and mated with them."

"Dragons?" Stephanie squeaked once she had managed to swallow what she was chewing. "Dragons are real?"

Ranger shrugged. "I haven't ever met one," he admitted. "That's just the myth. That people with Kenneth's ability set are the distant scions of dragons."

Stephanie fiddled with her food, pushing it around on her plate. Her appetite was gone. "What are his abilities?" she asked finally.

"He heals quickly and has a fast metabolism when he's in human form so he's burn through those tranquilizers the men will use on him. He can heal bullet wounds that would kill a human, as long as he doesn't bleed to death before he can close the holes."

Stephanie put down her silverware, focusing her attention on Ranger. "What else?"

"He can't shapeshift into a true dragon. Even the purer more inbred descendants can't take full dragon shape but he can shapeshift into pretty much anything cold blooded, lizards and snakes and such." Ranger waited a moment to see if she would comment on that but apparently, after seen Zip change into wolf form, she was willing to accept shape shifting as a possibility so Ranger continued, "He can alter his physical features, giving himself sharp strong claws when you think he's weaponless or if he's very focused maybe something as small as changing his nose and eyes so he's harder to recognize." Ranger considered for a moment just how hard it was to do those small subtle changes. "Probably Kenneth is too far gone at this point to change his facial features"

"Too far gone?" Stephanie echoed.

"Kenneth is...very inbred. Some lines have a lot of inbreeding to increase their abilities and keep the dragon genes strong. Unfortunately, that comes with side effects, usually psychological and in Kenneth's case, given the escalation in behavior regarding you, we think he's manifested one. He's crazy, Babe."

"What about the fire?" Stephanie asked. "The big ability you told the men about was that he can cause fire."

"Kenneth can call fire, that is, start a fire where there is something to burn or just fueled by his own power. Dragon-scions can also extinguish fires or only allow them to burn certain things. Their ability to control fire is partially due to experience controlling the flame within them, which is stronger or weaker depending on bloodline. Without learning that control instinctively and very early in life, they'd burn up from within or later humans would notice them breathing smoke or see fire in their eyes or they'd walk around and fires would break out around them accidentally. Scions who can't pass as human are killed."

Stephanie was staring at the candles flickering on the table between her and Ranger. "Sounds powerful and frightening. How have they managed to stay hidden for so long? How am I going to stay safe from him? And how do you know so much about them?"

"Don't worry," the flame on the apple pie candle whispered. "I'll protect you from him."

Stephanie gasped. This was the first time a flame had said something within the Rangeman Building. It was the first time one had seemed to say something comforting too. Usually she just imagined them threatening her. She hadn't told anyone about that. Ranger was watching her intently. He'd laugh at her if he realized that she was so scared by this stalker that she was hallucinating. She took a deep slow breath and struggled to keep her voice under control. "Can we put out the candles?" she asked Ranger.

"Why?," Ranger asked out loud.

The candle commented, "I know you can hear me, Babe." Stephanie squeezed her eyes shut, hating that her subconscious was using her worst fear against her.

"You okay?" Ranger asked.

"I..." She didn't know what to say and decided to try the trick Lester had drilled into her. "I don't want to talk about it. Let's go downstairs and see if the search on the license plate turned up anything."

"Babe."

"Ranger." Stephanie was getting frustrated. Ranger was too but he hid it better. He had never tried to admit what he was to a human. Frost's advice had been proof of power or difference first because then the human doesn't waste time thinking you're crazy. Zip had done things that way and she had been fine. He wondered why she didn't seem to get it. He knew she could hear the flame's voices but she seemed to be firmly in denial land. He decided to try something a bit more aggressively showy and hard to deny.

Stephanie watched in mingled fascination and horror as Ranger put his good hand in one of the candle flames. It licked up his skin and brushed through the hair on his forearm, not burning anywhere it touched. Kenneth had displayed that control of fire. Ranger held his flaming hand out to Stephanie, intending to show her that it wouldn't burn her while under his control. She pushed back from the table so fast that she knocked over her chair.

"It's..." Her voice trailed off and she tried again. "R-Ranger?" He realized for the first time, just how scared she was. Why? He groped in his morphine fogged thoughts for an explanation, not bothering to kill the flame on his hand. It tickled, distracting and soothing at once.

He thought too long because she bolted out of the apartment. He stood to follow her, reaching for the door knob with his flaming hand, and then cursed as he extinguished it abruptly. He looked down at himself. He wasn't really dressed to go downstairs. And for some reason, his Babe had been more frightened of a little fire trick than she had been of a vampire and a wolf. He picked up his cell phone and called down to Frost.

The elevator doors opened on five and Frost was waiting to meet Stephanie. Zero glanced up from monitors and gave Stephanie what he hoped was a reassuring smile. The poor girl had been tormented by Kenneth for several weeks, then had to cope with a vampire and a werewolf. If Ranger had revealed himself, she was probably seriously reconsidering her worldview. There was more than one reason for scions to keep their secrets from humans.

Archer, Zero's partner on monitors frowned. He had recognized the vampire pheromones the last few days but had assumed that no one else knew what she was. He had been wrong and now realized he was working with some of the monsters.

Frost put her arm around Stephanie's waist, cuddling close and forcing Stephanie to put her arm around her shoulders. This put her hair and pheromones, right near Stephanie's face. "Let's go talk in Tank's office," she said in her best talk the human off of the ledge voice.

"Did you know?" Stephanie asked Tank once the door had closed behind her. She leaned closer to Frost for a moment, taking a deep breath of the intoxicating scent. When she pulled away, her legs folded, not entirely intentionally, so she was sitting on the floor. Zip hopped down from the sofa and sat beside her, leaning his shoulder against hers to show her she wasn't alone. It was the only real comfort he could offer.

"Know what?" Tank asked, looking at Frost for a clue. She mouthed 'Ranger' to him and he glared at her, wondering why she'd brought Stephanie to him and how he'd become den mother to the human.

"Ranger's one of the fire monsters too," Stephanie replied in a hollow voice. "The candles talked. Only instead of threats it was Ranger's voice. Then there was fire on his hand and he reached for me." She rubbed the marks on her forearms absently as if the pain of the healing burns helped keep her grounded.

"Kenneth has been using fire to threaten you?" Tank asked to clarify. "Why didn't you say something?"

"Just my imagination. Only it's not. Because Ranger is like him too and did the same thing." She wrapped her arms around Zip and pressed her face into his fur.

Tank felt helpless and he was not used to the feeling. The fear scent coming off of Stephanie was so thick that it was clear she couldn't be acting entirely rationally. Frost knelt behind Stephanie, wrapping her arms around the human and resting her chin on Stephanie's shoulder. "You're safe with us. You've known Ranger for years. He would never hurt you with the fire."

"Monster," Stephanie replied, her voice muffled in Zip's fur.

Tank's brow furrowed. "You're hugging a wolf who turns into a man and letting a vampire breathe on your neck," he reminded her. "How is Ranger scarier than that?" Stephanie

"What are you Tank?" Stephanie asked finally, her voice had gone dreamy from the sheer amount calming pheromones she was breathing. She sounded like she had taken a large dose of valium. Zip wasn't affected nearly as much. The full wolf shape didn't respond the same way to pheromones evolved to trap human prey, though the human form of a shifter was vulnerable to them. The wolf felt the calm as what it was, a trap and was fighting an instinctive reaction to fight his way free. Tank hoped Frost would hold onto the calm she was sharing even though he knew it was only a temporary fix and that Zip would keep in control of the aggressive reaction..

Tank suppressed a sigh at Stephanie's question. "You sure you want to do this now? It's been a stressful day for you."

"Stop hiding from me. I'm not a child " She lifted her head to glare at him, wiping angrily at her tears. Maybe she wasn't quite as far gone as he had suspected or maybe part of her was reacting the same way Zip-the-wolf was reacting. Though, it was true that some humans, like Morelli reacted to the trapped feeling too.

"I'm furry but bigger than the puppy. And that's all I can do. Shift my shape and heal a little faster than human."

She narrowed her eyes at Tank. For the brief space between heartbeats, she thought she saw a shadow outline over Tank's body shape. "Cat," she said. "Tiger? Who else?"

"Zero," Tank replied, marveling that she had pinned down his species. Maybe Frost had been right when she had guessed weak healer blood. Healer genes also sometimes carried clairvoyance.

Stephanie looked down at Zip. "Puppies. Cousins. Wolves."

"Hector and Lester."

"Lester is Ranger's cousin so..." She trailed off, eyes widening. "You've been letting me alone with a fire monster? Letting me have sex with one?"

Tank's jaw clenched. Those lizards were his brothers more closely than any blood. "Dragon-scions are NOT all monsters. How many human stalkers have you had? Lester is just Lester. Always has been."

Stephanie eyed Tank. He looked like he wanted to go beat on the heavy bag or put his fist through a wall. "I'm sorry," she said is a small voice.

Tank seemed to swallow all of that anger. "No. I'm sorry. This is all new to you. I was expecting you to overreact like this to Frost but you didn't. I guess you were due."

"There's one more," Frost interjected.

"Bobby," Stephanie replied, absolutely sure.

"Yes. You'll have to ask him to show you," Frost said. "He's on the very pure end of the scale and his other form is magnificent."

"I think we've taken enough of Tank's time. Can I stay with you tonight?" Stephanie asked Frost.

"You made me move into Zero's apartment because you didn't want to sleep with me," Frost pointed out.

Stephanie shrugged. "If you're calm, I can't stay upset. I feel relaxed and sleepy and good. You're good at staying calm and I need to feel safe for a while. Maybe I'll stop feeling so crazy once I've gotten some sleep and it's had a chance to sink in."

"It's fine with me. Zip has to switch back to skin if you're bringing him though. I don't like fur in the sheets." Zip dropped his jaw in a doggy grin. The three of them went to Zero's apartment to get ready for bed.

Bobby got a call from Tank that Stephanie would be staying on four with Frost and Zip. Since Frost would be occupied tending the human, Bobby needed to do Ranger's bedtime bandage change. When he asked why, Tank just said that the reveal had gone badly and Stephanie was afraid. Since Stephanie would be sleeping elsewhere and time without restriction would help Ranger heal best and hurt least, Bobby went up intending to just remove all the bandages and replace them in the morning.

The seventh floor apartment appeared at first glance to be it's normal level of clean and neat but it smelled strongly of smoke. The dishes in the sink had apparently been cleaned by burning the food residue off of them. The metal kitchen trashcan contained only ashes, as did the trashcan in the living room and the paper shredder bin. He found Ranger flopped on his back on the bed.

There were no cameras in Tank's office but Ranger had seen her clinging to the vampire, holding a handful of the wolf's fur, and going into Zero's apartment. He was pissed at himself for scaring her and angry at her for being able to accept them but not him. Vampires and shapeshifters might not be what she expected from reading fiction, but she had a romanticized frame of reference for dealing with them. Apparently controlling fire crossed the line into monster territory. He wished he could take it back and not tell her. He wanted, just once for his Babe to say the words, to admit that she loved him as much as he loved her. No reservations, no prices, no conditions. But she couldn't accept him and he couldn't change what he had been born.

Bobby removed his bandages in silence, then just sat on the bed by Ranger for a moment. "I'm here if you need to talk. Tank too. Just give her some time. She's had a rough month and she's scared of fire. Remember that she's a victim of a deranged dragon-scion that has been actively hunting her. And she's handled a lot of surprises in the last week. She'll come around."

"Maybe she won't," Ranger replied. "There's a reason we don't tell them. Sometimes the knowledge that there are things scarier than other humans out there breaks them."

"She won't be broken. She's strong. It's just been a lot to cope with, especially with you gone for so long. They said she missed you."

"We'll protect her," he told Bobby. "Find and kill Kenneth. Then we'll let her go if she needs to go."

Then a large boa was on the bed, slithering out of Ranger's pants. Bobby changed out the bulb in the lamp for one that produced heat and adjusted it so it would make a warm area on the bed. In human form, Ranger carried his own heat but in this form he was still a snake and snakes needed an outside source of warmth. The snake coiled into the warm spot. Bobby put a candle on the bedside table and it lit immediately. "I'll call you if I need you. Watch out for my Babe," the vanilla candle ordered.

"I'll keep a candle with me," Bobby replied, knowing Ranger would rest better in a form that didn't hurt. "Don't burn my stuff."

* * *

**A/N 1** - Next Chapter - History for Stephanie, the scion races creation myth vs genetic version.

**A/N 2** - In general, do you prefer shorter chapters more often or longer chapters less frequently?


	11. Chapter 11

_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

* * *

Stephanie woke with her arm across a male chest and one leg over his legs. Soft breasts pressed against her back and an arm draped over her waist, anchoring her loosely against the body behind her. Zip was awake, his muscles tense. If Frost was awake, she mimicked sleep well. Light spilled into the bed area past the tall bookshelves that divided it from the living area. A man in black stood with his back to the light, a sling across his chest cradling his left arm was the only sign of weakness. Ranger's face was in shadow but even if it hadn't been, she knew he would be wearing his blank face.

"Can I talk to you for a moment Stephanie?" Ranger asked. His voice was strictly neutral, professional. It held none of the warmth that was usually there when he talked to her. Stephanie's heart broke just a little at that and at his use of her name. She knew her reaction last night had been awful. She wondered how pissed he was and whether he could forgive her.

"Sure," Stephanie agreed, trying to squirm out of between Frost and Zip. "This isn't what it looks like," she told him.

Ranger fought a quick nasty fight with himself. Stay distant or try to open up? She sounded like she still cared what he thought. Maybe he could salvage some sort of friendship even if she couldn't bear to be more to him. "It looks like you had a really scary and confusing day yesterday and some friends helped you feel safe enough to sleep."

"Well...yeah," Stephanie admitted but was quick to add, "But we just slept. We didn't have sex or anything." She felt her face heat up and he suppressed a chuckle. He knew in the dimness of the room, she wouldn't be able to see the hardness locked within his pants. The apartment was permeated in the calmest pheromone Frost could produce. Last night had definitely only been about comfort but he still wished it had been him in that bed last night instead of Zip.

Stephanie hadn't really succeeded in getting out of the bed. Zip was in no hurry to move and Frost slept like the dead. Finally, she resorted to elbowing Frost hard in the ribs to wake her. Frost's arm tightened around her. A light kiss between her shoulder blades made her shiver.

Ranger's blank mask cracked to reveal a slight smile. Two strides brought him to the edge of the bed near Zip. He offered his hand to help pull her out of their arms. She stared at it with wide eyes. Of course she wouldn't want to touch a monster. Ranger cursed himself silently for being a fool and started to withdraw his hand. Stephanie's hand darted out to grab his. He braced his legs to compensate for the loss of balance caused by the sling and helped her climb over Zip.

The wolf wearing human skin had been watching them with a mild curious gaze, neither helping nor hindering but when Stephanie stood next to Ranger, he spoke, "Do you want me with you?"

Stephanie did want him, preferably with fur so she could pet him. Maybe what she really needed was an actual dog. One look at Ranger's face stopped her from saying yes. His expression was frozen, coldly brittle, and his shoulders were tense. She had already fucked up enough.

"I think we'll be okay alone," she told Zip. Ranger's face and muscles relaxed immediately.

They sat on the couch just to the other side of the bookcases. Ranger knew Zip could definitely hear them no matter how low they kept their voices and if Frost was still awake, she could too. He wondered if Stephanie understood the full range of abilities of those two but this was about her and him. He couldn't allow jealousy of her acceptance of them cloud his judgement. He packed it away.

Stephanie was sitting at the opposite side of the couch from him. He had sat in the corner to give her plenty of room. She had her legs crossed, facing him, and though there was a full cushion between them, she wasn't as far away as she could have been. She wasn't far enough away to lean on the other arm of the couch. She wore what looked like one of Zero's t-shirts and it rode up enough around her crossed legs that he could see a glimpse of black panties.

Stephanie studied Ranger in turn. He looked better rested than he had yesterday but less the Ranger she had gotten to know and more the hardened mercenary she had first met. He was hiding himself from her. She couldn't blame him for that. He had tried to open up last night and she had totally freaked out.

"I'm sorry for flipping out last night," Stephanie told him. "Kenneth...he threatened me that way. Constantly. Outside of this building, I couldn't go near a flame without hearing him. I thought I was going nuts."

"Babe," Ranger said. "I guess it's hard to take in but it is really real. It's a common ability in even very weak blooded dragons though their range is a lot more limited than Kenneths...or mine."

"Or Lester or Hector?" Stephanie prompted.

"You'd have to ask them specifically. For Kenneth, he managed to throw fire as far as the 7th floor window within his line of sight but not higher than five out of sight. Lateral range should be around the same radius."

"What about the fires that started inside on 7 yesterday?"

Ranger cringed inwardly. He really didn't want to answer that question. "My control slipped a little when I got angry but I never would have hurt anyone with those fires Babe."

Stephanie stared at him and he could read the fear in her face and posture. Even with the calming effect Frost had, she was struggling. He could see that she was really trying.

"Do you mind if I light that?" he asked, pointing to the candle on the table. Ella had made sure all of the apartments had scented candles at his request while Frost was in residence. Stephanie shrugged in answer and he touched the wick of the candle, lighting it with the tiniest brush of power he could manage. Stephanie still flinched a little anyway but she didn't get up from the couch or run from the room.

"Do you think I would hurt you Babe?" Stephanie thought about that for a long moment, considered everything he had done for her over the years and realizing that he'd always taken care of her as much as she had let him.

"I don't think you would intentionally hurt me...but Ranger, it's fire. Fire burns." She looked down at the burn marks on her arms. Rage simmered in Ranger. Kenneth had done that, hurt her, made her fear him. How would she have reacted if she wasn't being hurt by one of his kind?

Ranger took Stephanie's hand and extended it towards the candle flame. The closer they got, the more reluctant she seemed, but she let him do it without a fight. He passed their fingers together through the flame, then let the flame run along their joined hands. "See?" Ranger asked her.

Stephanie nodded but her shoulders were still tight with tension. He extinguished the flame. She had been willing to let him show her. Maybe he needed to accept that as enough for now. He brought her hand back to her lap and then released it so he could tuck an escaped strand of hair behind her ear. "I would never hurt you babe. Or let anyone else hurt you if I can stop it. Let us get this guy for you. His death will be a public service. Then if you can't bear to be around me, okay."

"Okay," Stephanie agreed. He looked so sad but determined. She wanted to rush to reassure him, tell him that they'd figure out a way past this, that she could find a way to quench this fear, and that she had missed him too much to let him go now, even if he was freaky. She didn't. The fear was still strong.

"Go back to bed before you get cold," Ranger suggested. "I left a clean Rangeman outfit for you in the bathroom. Since the men know I'm here, I need to put in an appearance." He stood before she could reply, kissed her on the forehead, and left the apartment.

Stephanie sat on the couch, tucking her knees up under the shirt against her chest for warmth. Last night crawling into bed with Frost and Zip had seemed reasonable, comforting. This morning, it was just weird again and she couldn't make herself go back.

Zip wandered out of the bedroom eventually wearing a pair of sweatpants borrowed from Zero. He carried a second pair of them and handed them to Stephanie who untucked her legs and pulled the pants on. She cinched the waist tight with the drawstring but she'd have to be careful not to lose them. The cuffs at the ankles kept the over long legs above her ankles so they wouldn't trip her. She thanked Zip but when he sat close to her so she could pet him like she had been petting the wolf yesterday, she backed away.

"What?" he asked.

"I think I need to get a dog," she replied. "The wolf was so...you. I mean...your body language is kind of the same, bumping me with your shoulder, sitting extra close. I'm more comfortable with that from a dog than a person. I can't just pet a person."

"Do you want me to shift back?" he asked reluctantly. The wolf form was useful in some ways but when he shifted, he was stuck that way for hours and there was so much he couldn't do without thumbs or say without a voice. Stephanie shook her head.

"I'm just gonna go shower and then see if I can dig up anything more on Kenneth." Zip watched her make her way into the bathroom.

* * *

On Five

After Ranger made the rounds, reassuring people that he was fine and healing well from his mission, he gathered people into his office. Ranger, Bobby, Tank, Lester, Hector, Zero, and Cal were gathered is Ranger's office to hear Tank's accounting of last night's discussion with Stephanie. Ranger was behind his desk. Hector and Tank were on the visitor's chairs. Zero sat on the floor and Lester stretched across the couch. Bobby leaned on the arm of the couch. Cal stood near the door, as if wanting this to finish so he could escape. He wasn't sure why he had been included in this little pow-wow of the scions.

"Questions?" Ranger asked when Tank had finished recounting the events.

"Why am I here?" Cal asked. When Ranger's eyes narrowed slightly in the faintest hint of irritation, he hurried to add, "I'm happy to be wherever you want me to be but I'm not sure what I can add to this discussion."

"I think Sophia should come in to meet Stephanie," Tank said.

"She's a healer," Cal told him.

"That's kinda the point," Tank replied.

"This building is full of a lot of people. She would never refuse to help but it will be hard on her. Maybe Stephanie could go out to her house. A nice safe country retreat from the chaos while we find this bastard."

"There's only the three of us," Lester said. "That's enough for fire control there or here. Not both. Do you want Rangeman to burn if he think's she's here and we're all there?"

"He wouldn't find the farm so you wouldn't need many there."

"Don't you get it?" Lester shot back. "This guy is stronger than me or Hector. Ranger's the only one keeping us really safe and he'll be where Steph is."

"You can go out there and ask her to come attend her little sister, or I will send Bobby with the summons," Ranger said in his firmest coldest voice.

"Her sister?" Cal asked, confused.

"Probably more like distant cousin," Bobby commented.

"Huh? Bombshell?"

"Yeah. Clairvoyant tendencies come with healer blood. It's obviously very faint in Stephanie. Just a whole lot of caring and little hunches but I don't know how else to explain her."

"I'll go out to get her," Cal conceded. Sophia would want to know and help, even though it would hurt her to be here. She wouldn't care about that. It was just hard to watch her hurt.

* * *

**A/N - This is about half the length I had planned. Stephanie still needs her history lesson but it's been a long time and I thought you could use a little update since someone unearthed the story to comment on it yesterday, which acted like the sting of a crop to urge my reluctant muse to produce. I'm not highly motivated on this one or at all so...yeah. I'm not sure when I'll do the next chapter.**


	12. Chapter 12

_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

* * *

**(Stephanie POV)**

When I exited the elevator on the 5th floor, all eyes focused on me. I sniffed cautiously but didn't notice any pheromones lingering. Frost was still sleeping downstairs. I went to my cubicle first before realizing that I had left my laptop in Lester's office. I wondered if he was in there and decided maybe I could grab some breakfast from the breakroom first.

I sat at the table eating my yogurt, fruit, and granola. Woody and Hal were also eating breakfast or a morning snack there. There was an undercurrent between them that was new though there was nothing overt to tell me what had changed. I just felt certain something had. I took as much time as I could. If I were lucky, maybe I would have seen Lester leave his office and I could have gotten my laptop without talking to him. I wasn't lucky.

I knocked in his door and then entered tentatively. He looked up at me with a phone held to his head, said something in spanish, and hung up the phone. "I just need to grab my laptop," I told him, trying to sound confident but I lingered by the door.

"I'm not any different than ever," Lester told me quietly. "The only difference is, now you know." His tone was mild and his face remained blank. That he felt the need for those bits of camouflage told me a lot. I took a deep breath and stepped farther into his office, closing the door behind me.

"Intellectually, I know that," I agreed. I approached him cautiously. He stood, letting me approach him as if I were some wild creature he was trying not to spook. When I was within a few feet, he held his arms out a little to invite me into a hug but didn't reach for me. I stepped into his arms and he enfolded me in a careful hug. I couldn't relax; I didn't want to pull away. His hands rubbed up and down my back, growing warm, soothing my muscles. I finally closed my eyes and leaned into him. He had become my comfort while Ranger was away.

He shifted back a little to look down at my face and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. The hand cupping my face tickled, like the fire Ranger had danced over my hand earlier. I opened my eyes, saw the flame against my face, and let out a little squeak of alarm. I tried to jerk away. His other arm held me pinned against him.

I froze as he ran that flame down my skin without moving either of his hands. Heat washed over my body. Tongues of flames licked my nipples under my shirt, bringing my hormones to life. It trailed lower, tickling along the waist of my pants. Another bit of flame trailed up my inner thighs, adding its own heat and sensation to the warmth growing in my center. I moaned and tilted my head up for a kiss. Escape was the farthest thing from my mind.

A throat cleared behind me. Lester lifted his lips from mine and smirked, extinguishing the flames he had been using to play my body. I whimpered a protest and was immediately embarrassed. Boots crossed the floor of the office.

"Babe," Ranger said, laying a light kiss on my neck that made me shiver. "I thought you were afraid of the fire."

"She just needed a reason to like it," Lester told him. Ranger pressed against my back but his arm in the sling was between us. His good hand slid between Lester and I, pulling me back from Lester and taking an extra step back from him.

"Mine," Ranger told Lester. His tone was darkly possessive.

"Maybe she wants you to share," Lester replied before stepping back towards me and kissing a trail down the side of my face.

"No sharing," I murmured, trying to pull myself out of the sensations they were creating.

"You like this," Lester pointed out. One of them created another flame that focussed its attention on lapping between my legs. I pushed weakly against Lester's chest, trying to get some space. The flames faded. Both males released me. Wobbly legs took me to the couch before folding. I was damp, throbbing with need. I had felt so alive and terrified and excited with the flames on my skin.

"Babe?" Ranger asked. "You okay?" I nodded, still a little dazed. "How was this different than earlier? You were scared then. Scared of me."

"I was scared of Lester too at first but he wouldn't let me go. And then it started to feel really good." I studied his face, trying to decipher his reaction. He wasn't watching me any more. He was glaring at Lester with such malevolence that I was surprised Lester didn't burst into flames.

"You fucking forced that on her?" Ranger growled. "Hasn't she been tortured enough by us?"

Lester held his hands up, as if to ward off the venom in Ranger's words. "I didn't scare her a lot. Only a little to show her. I fucking helped, man."

I recognized the way they were both standing poised to fight. Even if it never turned physical, words could still hurt. "Stop!" I yelled at them. They both glanced at me and then returned to looking for weaknesses in their adversary. Boots pounded the floor in the corridor outside Lester's office. Someone banged on the door.

"Move!" I heard Tank bark, slightly muffled by the door before he burst through it. He assessed us all in one swift glance, told the concerned merry men crowding the door to go back to work, and shut the door of the office.

Tank took a slow deep breath, easing into the room until he was almost between me and the other two men. "I don't know what's going on but it's going to stop. Now." Lester and Ranger turned from each other and looked like they were about to start tearing into Tank.

"Guys? Ranger?" I asked, hating that my voice quivered a little bit. Ranger shoved past Tank, closed the space between us in three strides, knelt at my feet, and took my hand. I didn't flinch this time. "Please don't fight," I whispered.

"It's alright, Beautiful," Lester told me. "His mother just didn't teach him to share."

"You sent me to him," I reminded Ranger. I ran my free hand through his hair. It was fairly short again. Maybe it had been cut for the mission or maybe, like mine, it had needed cut after being burnt. He pressed his face into my knees as he enjoyed me playing with his hair.

"I didn't have to see it then. Hearing about it later is different. I wasn't here." There was a soft slight sound. When I looked up from Ranger, the room was empty and the door closed. Guess they had decided we needed privacy. "Seeing you with him that way after you had been so scared of me last night and even this morning…" Ranger opened his eyes to look up into mine. He wasn't masking his emotions at all. I saw how much he hurt and how much he loved me at the same time. I kept petting him.

"I'm sorry about how I reacted to you. I think the flinch and instinctive fear will pass in time."

"You haven't heard all of it," Ranger warned.

"You can create fire and control it and talk through it, what am I missing?"

"Shapeshifting," Ranger told me.

"Into…" I prompted.

"Pretty much anything cold blooded. Snakes, lizards."

"Not cute and fluffy," I observed. He studied my face and I wondered what he saw. "Going to show me?" I prompted him.

He stared at me for a moment, then his clothing collapsed into a pile. A green head emerged, followed by the rest of a very bright green body and a really long tail. He climbed up onto the couch beside me. I stretched a cautious finger out to touch him.

A candle lit on the the desk. "I won't bite, Babe."

"Iguana's bite?" I asked. "You feel kinda neat," I added, running my fingers along the fringe on his back. I looked at him more closely, absorbing that this was Ranger. He was missing his left front foot. "What happened?" I asked him, pointing to the stump.

"Injured on the mission. Remember?" Ranger explained dismissively via the candle. "It's growing back." I stared at him, trying to process that bit of information. "Lift up your hair," the candle suggested. I lifted my hair up off of my neck and Ranger the Iguana climbed me and settled his body over my shoulders behind my neck. The missing front hand didn't seem to impede his progress. He was heavier than I had expected. His tail draped down my chest nearly to the waistband of my pants.

He told me, "I came in here for a reason. I need Lester to go check something out. Let's go find him and Tank."

"Can't you just talk through the fire at him?" I asked.

"Sure, if I knew where he was, I could create flame there or use a nearby flame to talk through...but who would see that happening? Safer to go find him."

"The guys are gonna think I'm like Dr. Doolittle or something if I keep appearing with different animals."

"Don't answer questions," Ranger advised.

"Are you okay if I stand up?" I asked. The lizard on my shoulder nodded. When I stood, long clawed toes gripped to help him balance. It felt kinda cool.

As we moved through the cubicles, several of the men stared at the huge ass iguana on my shoulder but none of them said anything. One of them, Mark, narrowed his eyes at the lizard and looked through the open door to Lester's empty office. Then his blank face settled firmly in place, hiding his conclusions. I wondered if he had seen Ranger enter the office and not leave but there was nothing I could do about it then.

We found Lester in Tank's office and Ranger explained where he wanted Lester and Hector to take a team. He had spoken to one of his contacts and gotten some information of locations where Kenneth was making appearances sporadically. The guys needed to get eyes on him, even if they couldn't get him right away. Lester and Hector weren't as strong as Kenneth with fire but they had a few advantages over the pure human rangemen.

After they were on their way, we stopped back in Lester's office for me to gather Ranger's things from the floor. Then we took the elevator to three where we found Bobby sending one of the contract workers on his way with some fresh stitches. "Knife," Bobby explained to us briefly. Once the door had shut behind the man, leaving us alone with him in the medical suite, he added, "I'll have the report on file by end of day."

I laid the pile of clothing and bandages on the exam table and told Bobby, "Ranger said he needed to have the fake arm re-done when he changed back so we should come here."

"How long has it been since he changed?" Bobby asked me.

"A little over an hour. Zip couldn't change back that fast."

"Zip takes hours to change back. Ranger can probably manage it after an hour, though he'll be tired and sore. I can change in about 30 minutes if I'm not too active or an hour at the outside." Bobby grimaced. "There are a few advantages to having ancestors who didn't see anything wrong with marrying their own sisters."

"What? Yuck." I replied.

Bobby shrugged. "It's standard breeding practice for livestock. Breed to reinforce the desirable trait. In this case, fast recovery from shape shifting and the larger bird forms. Cull the monsters that resulted from undesirable gene combinations. The resulting generations are stronger and purer. Just like how wolves became both chihuahuas and great danes."

"You're people, not livestock or pets!" I protested.

"The gods didn't think so," Bobby replied. "Or at least, they didn't think we had any more rights or feelings than humans ascribe to livestock.

Ranger interrupted the conversation by leaping off of my shoulder abruptly to land on the exam table with the clothing. He looked at Bobby expectantly. Then a small fire sprang to life next to him on the table. "Do you have time to put me back together? Cal should be back with Sophia soon."

"Are you going to stay in human form instead of ruining my hard work?" Bobby asked as he sorted through the clothing pile to extract the things he had used to make a fake hand and wrist for Ranger. Ranger snapped at him in answer, narrowly missing Bobby's hand. "Fine, shift then," Bobby told him, not at all bothered by the bite attempt.

Ranger's lizard body blurred for a moment and then his human body sat on the exam table. He stood and dressed efficiently, not appearing to be hampered overly much by his missing hand. Bobby gave him an injection and then examined Ranger's arm, flexing it at the elbow, probing under the skin and muscle to check the bone growth. It looked like the skin was regrown to the wrist area but not the bone. It was really weird to see.

"Why aren't you bleeding?" I asked. I couldn't see any real need for a bandage and the lizard's stumped leg had been pretty clean too.

"The blood vessels get sealed off as a temporary measure. We can die if we bleed out," Ranger explained. "As the muscle regrows, the arteries and veins to support it grow as well."

"The dragons really have the best healing of all of us," Bobby explained. "I can heal most things but I can't regrow a limb like a dragon scion."

"You get to fly," Ranger pointed out then added to me, "I can't do a full dragon form. None of us can. Only things like lizards and snakes."

Bobby explained to me, "There's no actual proof that the species we call dragon-scions is actually descended from dragons. That's the myth but they could just be an experiment of some god, like most other scion species' myths."

He had finished poking at Ranger and carving more bits of foam off of the fake hand they were using. Then he wrapped Ranger's arm, attached the fake, and supported it with the sling. As he worked, he explained each step to me, in case I needed to do it at some point. It would be significantly more uncomfortable for Ranger without the local injection of anesthetic first but in a pinch, I could manage.

* * *

**A/N - Thank you to everyone for the comments last chapter. Comments fuel the writing and are great motivation for the muse. Carrots to coax rather than me beating her into compliance.**


	13. Chapter 13

_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

* * *

_(Stephanie POV)_

After tending to Ranger's arm, Bobby took a look at the burns on my arm, agreeing with Frost's assessment that they were superficial. Then he lifted my shirt and examined the angry line of stitches on my stomach. It was constantly uncomfortable and every move pulled on them. He admired Frost's stitch work but scolded me for not taking care of the wound well.

Ranger got a call from the control room before Bobby could coat the stitches in antibiotic cream and told us, "Sophia's here."

"Who's Sophia?" I asked.

"Cal's girlfriend. She's a healer," Ranger told me.

"Can you have her come here first?" Bobby requested. "If she's going to heal this, I can pull the stitches but if not, they need to stay in for a few more days."

"I thought you said the stitches looked good?" I asked as Ranger passed the request on into the phone.

"I said that Frost puts in very neat even stitches," Bobby corrected. "It's good work that should hold you together a few more days while you finish healing up. The healer is here now though so if she's gonna do her thing, I can take them out."

"Is a healer what is sounds like?" I asked. "None of you have ever really told me much about them."

"Healer might be a misnomer but that's what they're best known for. Even less is known about their origins than most scions," Bobby explained. "They heal by touch and they're not selective. They're ruled by their instincts and they have to help in whatever way their instincts urge. They also can't physically cause harm; if they manage it, they feel three times what they caused."

"Law of three," a female voice chimed in from the doorway. She stepped past Ranger and put a hand on the burns decorating my arms. There was a flare of heat and remembered pain and the burns faded. She seemed to be reaching for my stomach next but Bobby grabbed her arm and pushed her, a few steps back from me. Cal, who had entered behind her, looped an arm around her waist, pinning her against him.

"Bobby just needs to take the stitches out first," Cal told her, soothingly. "If you heal her over the stitches, he'll have to undo your good work to get them back out."

"She hurts," the woman replied in a sing-song voice. "Infection crawling through her. Oh...why didn't you call me sooner? Why let her hurt like this?" Cal murmured in her ear, his voice soothing.

Bobby snipped each stitch and pulled it out individually. He worked quickly. The woman stood, passively in Cal's arms but her face was pinched in pain. She flinched every time I flinched from the stitch removal. As soon as Bobby was done, Cal released the healer and she did her thing. The pain flared sharp and immediate and as real as the cut had been. Then it faded and I looked down at my unmarked stomach in amazement.

Her focus shifted from me to Ranger. She held out her hand to him. "Do you want me to finish that for you?" she asked. I was wondering what she intended to finish when Ranger stepped away, making sure to keep his injured arm away from her.

"I'm healing okay on my own," Ranger replied. Sophia stared at him for a moment, all of her muscles tense, but she didn't approach him.

"Why were you upset about the delay to heal me but seem okay about letting Ranger heal himself?"

"He's healing already," Sophia replied. "His pain is physical and temporary. You need so much. More than just the physical. Your aura is hurting. Why would they let you keep bleeding like this?"

"Uh…" I didn't know how to respond.

"Why don't you take Sophia up to seven, babe," Ranger suggested. "The two of you can talk a bit."

I hopped off of the exam table, gave Ranger a quick hug, and received a kiss on the cheek in return. Sophia touched two fingers lightly to Cal's neck, as if taking his pulse. "You're fine," she told him. "I'm fine too. This isn't an easy place to be. So noisy! So many impressions. But you worry too much about me."

She gave Ranger another lingering glance and bit her lip for a moment. Then she bounced over to me and said, "Lead the way."

She wasn't what I had expected. She appeared to be older than me by anywhere from a few years to a decade. She had a few fine wrinkles that appeared to be more laugh lines than from stress. Her attitude alternated between intense and a childish lightness. She followed me happily enough to the elevator but was extremely tense as we passed four and five. "Loud," she explained, which wasn't much of an explanation at all. Her expression eased considerably by he time we exited the elevator on seven and gained admittance to Ranger's apartment sanctuary.

"This is well shielded," she observed.

"Shielded?" I asked.

"hmmm…" She looked over at me, startled, as if she had forgotten my presence while she examined something I couldn't see. "Oh yes. The dragon in charge here doesn't like healers. We can't be trusted, you see? But someone worked these wards and we're the only ones who do active magic. You can't see it?"

"See what?"

"The walls glow with it. Very strong and bright." Sophia reached out and took my hand. "Cal said they think you're a distant cousin of one of our bloodlines. If so… Just close your eyes for three breaths and on the last exhale, open your eyes." I followed her instructions. Her hand was warm on mine. Little tingles originated in her hand and danced up my arm and face, covering my eyes. When I opened them, the walls were all covered with some sort of bright writing in a script I didn't recognize.

"What's that written in?"

"Probably just water," Sophia explained. "The intent is important, not permanent marks. The caster usually uses an ink pen or a fine paintbrush or even just a finger dipped in water."

"You said Cal thinks I'm a distant cousin of yours?" I asked, remembering that Frost thought I might be something like an unmentionable but not.

"No. I said it wrong. Cal carried the scion's message to me. They think it. It's not strong though. You've killed a man."

"It was self defense," I protested. It was necessary, a kill or be killed situation. Guilt still gnawed at me.

"Everything in balance," Sophia explained. "You can protect yourself but you probably can't cast spells or direct your visions at all. You might feel the urge to help, feel wrong or guilty if you don't." She let go of my hand. "Your thoughts are very loud and your emotions screaming. You're scared and a little excited but you've been very scared for a long time and it's hard to notice anything else."

We talked for a while and ate dinner that I barely tasted. It was a lot like going to a counselor who could sense your reactions before you put words to them. There was nowhere to hide from myself around her; no pretending. I felt emotionally naked. She was eerie. The dragon scions controlled fire. There were shapeshifters in the world that I had never know about; wolves, birds, bears and other predators who could walk around as people. There were vampires who were the real top of the food chain. This woman was the scariest thing of all and she could not harm me physically. I'm sure she knew how I felt. I suspected that everyone who encountered her reacted that way.

By the time Ranger and Frost arrived to summon me downstairs for the progress report of the teams who had been out searching for Kenneth, I felt very fragile, like I had been scrubbed emotionally with a wired brush but at the same time, I felt strong for having come out of the conversation. I usually avoided the emotional stuff but talking with Sophia was the most invasive of emotional stuff and I had survived it without running.

_(End Stephanie POV)_

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As they passed through the control room, Ranger ordered Cal, Zip, and Zero to meet Sophia in the garage to take her back out to her farm and stay there for a few days to make sure Kenneth hadn't followed her from Rangeman back to her safe place. Kenneth probably knew where Sophia lived. She was the only local healer and clairvoyant so he may have consulted her or needed a healing. Ranger had asked her to come though and he wouldn't risk that her association with them now had been seen and would make Kenneth target the healer. In sending men there, he also removed a potential avenue of escape and help from Kenneth. No matter what she knew intellectually about what he had done, if Kenneth arrived asking for help, Sophia was incapable of refusing and completely unable to protect herself. The wolves and her human boyfriend were the best protection he could spare to get her away so Kenneth didn't get a chance to ask. Sophia yielded without a fuss. She understood why the offer was being made. Even a deranged dragon-scion was unlikely to harm her but she couldn't be trusted not to help the enemy if the enemy needed help.

They were passing the break room when the raised voices inside drew their attention. Archer was in there with Hal and Woody. Stephanie didn't catch all of what he was saying to them but it was something about being an abomination and sinning. Whatever was the abomination wasn't really them. It was the vampire's fault. They needed to repent. He was pressuring them very hard and he sounded a little over-zealous. Ranger didn't need to hear more than a few seconds.

"Archer!" Ranger barked from the doorway. "We don't allow that religious shit in here. Injured or not, I can still kick your ass. Mats, 0500."

"I'll take care of him," Frost practically purred in a voice that had changed subtly to sound suspiciously like a phone sex operator. She slipped past Ranger and into the small room.

"Frost," Ranger warned as she approached Archer. He was far enough back from them not to catch the first whiff of her changed pheromones but the state of the men's pants showed the change clearly enough.

Archer fished a cross on a long chain out of his shirt and held it out towards Frost. She laughed and brushed her fingers over it, pushing it down as she reached to touch the side of Archer's face. That put the pulse point at her wrist, one of the strongest pheromone release locations right at his nose.

"What the fuck?" he said but his words lacked any strength of resistance. He didn't even try to back away.

"I don't care what you claim is the issue here," she told her prey. She had her back to Hal and Woody and used that cover to flash her fangs at Archer. "But your problem is ultimately with me and I'll take care of it. I don't have to hide behind Ranger and you don't get to take it out on these men."

The vampire was angry and hungry and stopped trying to meditate those things away. She felt them, immersed herself in them, built them stronger. The human who had been causing trouble looked confused and unable to focus for a moment. Then his eyes filled with a dark hunger. He wanted her and he was desperate enough that he would take her by force if given a chance, might take anyone by force. She trailed one delicate hand down his arm and snapped a handcuff in place. Her prey frowned down at the cuff. He should have been objecting to that. He was sure there was a really good reason but he couldn't remember it. Then she led him to a chair, sat him down, and handcuffed that arm to the arm of the break room chair. He need the touch, wanted it, though part of him in the background was freaking out. The tiny part remaining who was horrified to be restrained couldn't find a voice. She handcuffed his other arm to the other side and laid the lightest possible kiss against the pulse point in his neck. Archer moaned at the feel of lips on his neck. He was hard, aching, ready for her. She hushed him. She had other things to do. He could wait.

Frost stepped back, took a slow breath, pushed the emotions away where they belonged. She looked around. Ranger and Stephanie had been wise enough to stay out of the break room. Hal and Woody were looking at each other. She went to each of them, touching their faces to get their attention. "Go straight upstairs and shower immediately," she instructed them.

"All done," Frost told Ranger. "I'll take care of that one. Later. I'm hungry anyway." She locked the break room's door and closed it firmly.

Ranger and Stephanie entered the largest conference room with Frost on their heels. Lester and Hector and the teams they had led to search Kenneth's potential hiding places had both returned and everyone from those teams was gathered there with Tank and Bobby. Hector reported that his team had found a storage area registered in his second alias name with everything a person would need to start over with a new identity including a car registered to a third new name that had a bunch of real identity documents in that name, weapons, a suitcase of clothing, and money both in cash and bank accounts associated with that name.

"It's as good as one you could create," Hector told Ranger, mindful of the human employees who were also listening intently. They would think of forgeries. Ranger's thoughts went immediately to the dozens of false births the clan's registered every year to have open identities for people who needed them. They had started doing that in the 30's when social security was just in it's infancy. Most scions carefully cultivated the extra identities their parents had created and bartered for. They were real, down to grade school records and DMV photos and taxes. No one did that quite as well as the dragon-scions with their ability to alter their facial features. Ranger was sure that Kenneth's identities were very real but Kenneth's clan had given them up, helped them to find that storage place.

Lester gave his report when it became clear that Ranger wasn't going to respond to that bit of information. Stephanie looked like she wanted to erupt with questions but she eyed the human Rangemen and kept silent. She was smart enough to realize that she wouldn't get a complete answer until they were in private. Lester's team had gotten reports leading them to his favorite pizza place and they were tapped into the security cams there watching for Kenneth. They had also found several rented rooms with evidence that he had been there but had cleared out. Lester finished with the conclusion that he had probably left town after realizing that there was someone at Rangeman who could actually hope to win against him. It might take a while but they would find where he had run to. It was just like chasing any other dumb skip.

Stephanie burst into tears at that news. "Babe?" Ranger prompted her. She glared at him, as if his concern made him a target for all of the fear and anger she felt at her helplessness against Kenneth and being trapped here. They were trying to hide her, protect her but she felt suffocated. After her visit with Sophia, her emotions were very close to the surface and not as repressed as usual. She couldn't keep from feeling. She didn't want to be stuck here locked in Rangeman forever. The emotions flew across her expressive face, like signs on a billboard.

"It's okay, Beautiful," Lester told her, grasping the problem she couldn't articulate. "We've got him on the run now. He's scared. We just have to chase him until we get him. It should be safe for you to go out once we're sure he's out of town."

"And on that note, let's end the meeting for now. We'll reconvene at 0700…" Ranger trailed off when Stephanie made a small protesting noise. "...make that 0900 to set up teams to widen the search outside of Trenton."

Ranger and Stephanie went back up to seven together. Frost gave them 10 minutes before following them up and found them in a stand off. Stephanie wasn't entirely comfortable sleeping beside Ranger but was afraid to say that. She wanted to show him that her overreaction from yesterday was done but at the same time, there was still lingering wariness that she didn't want to admit. Ranger wanted her to stay but more than that, he wanted her to want to stay. Lester's method of forcing her to like the fire a little had been effective but he didn't want her to feel forced to stay with him. Frost's presence broke the stalemate.

As she unwrapped the bandages, probed at his forming wrist bones, and gave him more local pain killing injections, she also flooded the room with calming pheromones. Ranger was closest and sucumbed first. He dozed off while Stephanie was digging in the kitchen for a bedtime snack. When Stephanie came back, he looked harmless, sleeping there to one side of the big bed.

"Do you want me to stay up here too?" Frost asked. Stephanie took a deep breath, letting her muscles relax.

"That sounds fine," she agreed in a dreamy tone, laying down on the bed and snuggling close to Ranger. She was careful not to jostle his healing arm but he was so drugged on pheromones and pain killers that he probably wouldn't have noticed.

"Good girl," Frost told her. "We'll get you through this. He'll be happy to wake up and find you here." It still felt a little strange for Stephanie to have another woman crawl into bed with her, even if it was just for comfort and sleeping.

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Tank noticed that the break room door was closed and locked and opened it to check inside. He found Archer there, passed out handcuffed to a chair in air laden with a messy mix of pheromones. Deciding it wasn't wise to step into the room or let anyone else do so, he closed the door again, locked it, and put a note in the window that the break room needed to stay closed. Frost would just have to deal with her own mess in the morning.

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**A/N** - Chapter 14 is already written; It is from Kenneth's POV. I plan to post it at some point Thursday BUT if I meet my review goal (200; guest reviews included) before Thursday, I will post the chapter early.


	14. Chapter 14 - Kenneth Speaks

_Thank you all for the reviews. ShyGirl36 posted the magic number 200. :-)_

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_Standard disclaimer: The characters and elements of the world that you recognize are not mine. No one has been harmed. This is purely for entertainment._

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**(Kenneth POV)**

I emerged from my hole in the earth behind the stage area of the Trenton Fire House's carnival grounds. They had an abundance of mice there and while they had never been my favorite snack it was enough in a pinch. Trenton had been enjoying a fairly warm autumn but even so, the position of the sun told me that I hadn't warmed enough to wake up until nearly midday.

This was all that curly haired bitch bounty hunter's fault. I was sleeping in a fucking hole in the ground instead of my house or apartment because she kept finding those.

She had come to my house and took me back to the human jail a little over a month ago. At first, no harm, no foul. Human bitch was just doing her job, right? Just like the human police. A child of dragons had no need to follow their stupid laws. They meant nothing to us but she couldn't be expected to know that. They were blind. Dragons and the other children of the gods simply worked around them, like humans worked around the wildlife surrounding their cities.

When she took me back into their system, I didn't bother waiting for a second bail hearing, just created confusion with a fire in the prison and used the chaos as cover to leave in a form that the guards and fences wouldn't stop or even recognize as an escapee. I ducked into my hidden apartment to pick up a fresh set of identity documents and my secondary cell phone. Then I stole a car and was headed out of town when my clan leader called me.

I had been expelled from the clan. I wasn't welcome to go hide at home. Worse than that, for the crime of being stupid enough to get caught on tape shifting into the snake form I had used to escape the prison, the sentence was the end of my bloodline. Any adult dragon scion from my clan was obligated to try to remove me from the gene pool, by killing or castrating me if they came in contact with me. Any dragon scion from another clan or any other type of scion could claim a large payment if they carried out the punishment. The children I had already sired were on probation; any sign of my apparent stupidity would result in their deaths as well.

The human bounty hunter bitch deserved some payback for that. If she hadn't taken me back to prison, I wouldn't have had to escape and wouldn't have gotten caught, right? The voices whispered to me, telling me to go slowly. I started little fires around her. I whispered to her as the voices whispered to me. She didn't know what she had done but she deserved a little fear and a little pain, to know what the life of a hunted creature was like. I was a hunted creature now because of her.

As I was hunting her though, I saw her sitting in the back of the pizza place with two men. The sizzle of power in their auras gave them away as dragon scions like me, though I didn't recognize them as part of my extended clan. They were weak, nothing to fear. They treated the human bounty hunter bitch like a friend. The voice of the fire within told me that she must know our secrets. She had turned me into the human police with full knowledge of my birthright. She had disrespected me, gotten me expelled from my clan. Maybe even laughed about me with the other scions and had them exert pressure to have my bloodline declared damaged so they could collect the payment for my castration or death.

I was so angry that night. If the flame within was right...and why would it lie? So I stepped up the game by putting more direct pressure on her. Hurting her instead of merely frightening the little curly haired brunette sheep. The voices had changed a little then, urging temperance. That was unusual enough that I listened. I could have killed their tool that night but killing the pet does no good if the masters can just train another. I had to draw out the other scions too and punish them for coming after me, for letting their pet harm me. They deserved to suffer too. So I let her free to run back to her masters. They would be no match for me.

The day after they had raided my hidden apartment, I had a little taste of revenge. Take my apartment and I'll take yours. When I burned her apartment building, they had come and I had hurt them. They were too busy saving the human elderly to come after me. I had proven that I was stronger, had damaged them enough that I knew they would feel the pain of my fire for days. It wasn't enough. Not enough at all. They had separated me from my clan. Their home should burn too along with everything they cared about.

The afternoon before yesterday, I had tried to burn their building where they lived and the bitch bounty hunter was hiding. I kept starting fires. The more I started, the louder the voice of the flame grew. "Make them hurt. Make them suffer. Make them fear as you fear. They deserve it." The two low level dragons chased after my fires, trying to put them out. Humans poured out of the building in response to the alarms. There was a new dragon scion there though and that one carried a bloodline at least as strong as mine. I felt the pressure of his aura wash over me as he claimed the fires I had started and made them his own. Then he put out my flames. It was as clear as a shout. He considered the building and the people there his territory.

He left the building with a wolf-scion and the bounty hunter bitch. It was clear that while she may have been friends with the other weaker scions, she belonged to that one. His arm was in a sling. That must have been a grave injury but it would heal. Strong scions always healed. That one would be a worthy opponent. If I could best that one, maybe my clan would see that my bloodline had worth and shouldn't be cut off. It would have to be an obvious and personal victory though and the powerful dragon-scion hadn't yet left the building.

Yesterday, I had seen two teams of his employees, each with one of the lower level dragons go to ALL of the places where I had been sleeping. I hadn't slept in the same place twice since my hidden apartment had been raided by them but I had to sleep somewhere. They found all of those places. And my favorite pizza place. And the storage unit where I had had a few things stocked for my planned getaway after the dragons and the bounty hunter bitch were destroyed.

My only remaining resources were cached in small hidden places, just bundles of clothing. I had to sleep in the ground and hunt for my food. They would pay for reducing me to this savagery. "Soon," the voices whispered. "Soon they will pay." If the dragon wouldn't come out of his sanctuary, I would have to go in after him. A building full of human employees could not keep a dragon out of somewhere he wanted to be.

I slithered through the grass until I reached the small stand of trees by the stream at the edge of the carnival grounds, changed to human form, and dressed in the worn clothing I had hidden in a garbage bag under a fallen log. I ran the plastic comb through my hair, trying to look less like a vagabond. I hoped for victory and prayed to the gods for strength and stealth.

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**A/N - Thanks for pre-reading and offering opinions goes to Zeveray and Basketcse as usual plus Ybanormlmom who just happened to catch me by email when I had something to show her. You should all thank Basketcse and Ybanormlmom especially because I was going to offer this chapter only as an extra via email. They convinced me that it was important enough to the story to be its own chapter.**


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